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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATEfi 



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New Commentary 



Manual for M^ung ^tn. 



THE NEW, REVISED, AND ILLUSTRATED 
EDITION. 




DAVExMPORT, IOWA^'l^^t?f ||^^§MVH^ 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOl 






CO 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by Charles H. Kent, in 
the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 








preoenteti to 



^U 




^ 







(^ I would desire for a friend, the son who never re- ^^ 
y^ sisted the tears of his mother. —Lacretelle, 37j 



a 



When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this 

world is over ! That is a sign that the earth has begun to wither — and that is a 

dreadful kind of old age. 

— George MacDonald. 



I desire to find in books not what may be blamed, but what may be praised, 
and that from which I may learn something. This course is not exaclly in fash- 
ion ; but it is the most useful. Nevertheless, though there are few books or 
persons in whom I cannot find something of use to me, I know how to make a 
difference in granting them my confidence. 

— Godfrey Wilhelm von Leibnitz. 



DEDICA TION. 



TO THE 

^0Utt0 pten of Jlmmta, 

WITH THE KINDEST REGARDS FOR THEIR WELFARE, AND A HOPE THAT NONE 

WHO MAY READ SHALL FAIL OF REACHING THE HIGHEST 

ROUND OF USEFULNESS, AND OF ENJOYING 

TO THEIR FULLEST CAPACITY 

The Fruits of a Beautiful Life, 

THIS VOLUME IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 

THE AUTHOR. 



IN THE INTEREST OF 

The Fathers and Mothers of the Young Men of America, 

IS PUBLISHED. 

With the sincere hope and earnest prayer of the Author, that it may prove 

instrumental in saving some Darling Boy from ruin, some Home 

from sorrow, it is most affectionately commended 

to their favorable consideration. 



PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. 



The first edition was issued four years ago. It was a venture 
then, without prestige. We sent it on its mission, not knowing 
how it would be received by the impartial critic. We were not a 
little anxious for its fate while " waiting for the verdidl." We had 
not long to wait ; and we do not wish to be thought egotistical 
when we say that it surpassed our most sanguine expe6lations. 

The "press" treated our efforts with marked consideration. 
Their "reviews" were generous — complimentary, and their com- 
mendations were unqualified, fully endorsing the New Commen- 
tary. 

Letters-testimonial, unsolicited, came by the hundreds. Their 
tone was marked by the most emphatic language of approval — 
"The best book I ever read;" "Worth its weight in gold;" "A 
capital book for young men," and similar forcible expressions. 

Many of them came from distinguished personages. We men- 
tion a few names to show the class and standing of those who 
were so kind as to favor us with their opinions of the New Com.- 
mentary^ over their own signatures : 

Rev. George F. Magoun, D. D., President Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa; Hon. 
G. W. McCrary, Judge United States circuit court, Keokuk, Iowa; Rev. H. W. 
Parker, Professor Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa ; J. L. Pickard, President Iowa 
University, Iowa City, Iowa ; Rev. A. L. Frisbee, Des Moines, Iowa ; Rev. Dr. 
Salter, Burlington, Iowa ; Prof. M. T. Brown, General Agent Johnson's New 
American Encyclopaedia, Davenport, Iowa ; Rev. D. R. Dungan, D. D., Presi- 
dent Drake College, Des Moines, Iowa ; Rev. Dr. J. M. Sturtevant, Jr., Grinnell, 
Iowa ; Rev. Samuel Hodge, President Lenox Collegiate Institute, Hopkinton, 
Iowa; Rev. W. H. Stifler, D. D., Davenport, Iowa; Rev. Canon Kellogg, Pro- 
fessor Griswold College, Davenport, Iowa; Miss Frances E. Willard, of Evans- 
ton, Illinois, the distinguished scholar, author, and lecturer, now President of the 
Woman's Christian Temperance Union ; Hon. John V. Farwell, Farw^ell & Co., 
Chicago, Illinois ; David C. Cook, Chicago, Illinois ; Rev. J. G. Merrill, St. Louis, 
Missouri ; Rev. T. W. Post, D. D., St. Louis, Missouri ; Rev. C. L. Goodell, D. D., 
St. Louis, Missouri ; Rt. Rev. Frederick D. Huntington, S. T. D., Bishop of 
Central New York, Syracuse, New York ; Prof. John R. French, Dean of the 



X PREFACE. 

College of Liberal Arts, Syracuse University, New York; Rev. J. M. Clarke, 
D. D., Re6lor St. James Episcopal church, Syracuse, New York ; Prof. George A. 
Bacon, Ph. D., Syracuse, New York ; Rev. Richmond Fisk, D. D., Syracuse, New 
York; Rev. A. F. Beard, D. D., American Chapel, Paris, France; Rev. Nelson 
Millard, D. D., Norwich, Connecticut ; Rev. T. T. Munger, Author, North Adams, 
Massachusetts ; Rev. E. B. Webb, Boston, Massachusetts ; Rev. A. B. Kendig, Bos- 
ton, Massachusetts ; Rev. E. H. Greeley, Concord, New Hampshire ; Rev. E. F. 
Clark, East Boston, Massachusetts; Rev. Dr. S. F. Smith, author of '' My Coun- 
try, 'Tis of Thee," Newton Centre, Massachusetts ; Rev. A. H. Currier, Lynn, 
Massachusetts ; Gen. H. K. Oliver, Salem, Massachusetts ; Rev. Washington 
Gladden, Columbus, Ohio ; Rev. Dr. H. N. Powers, Bridgeport, Conne6ticut ; 
Rev. Charles F. Deems, Pastor of the "Church of the Stranger," New York 
City ; Hon. John F. Dillon, New York City ; Rev. James Powell, Secretary 
American Missionary Association, New York City ; Hon. Wm. E. Dodge, New 
York City ; Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D , Chancellor of the University of New 
York; Prof. W. B. Kirkbride, "Columbus, New Jersey ; Prof. A. C. Perkins, Prin- 
cipal of Phillips Exeter Academy, New Hampshire ; G. H. Rollins, Deschutes, 
Oregon ; Prof S. K. Henrie, Greensburg, Pennsylvania ; Prof. L. C. Stiffler, 
Hagerstown, Maryland ; Prof. Will. A. Cate, Maryville, Tennessee ; R. J. Beatty, 
Esq., Treasurer Iron and Steel Works, Portsmouth, Ohio ; Prof. Wm. M. Bris- 
toll, Yankton, Dakota ; W. C. Stiles, Esq., Rome, Ohio ; Prof. Samuel Hammitt, 
Hamilton, Ohio ; Rev. A. H. Chittenden, Hartsville, Indiana ; Rev. Henry S. 
DeForest, President Talladega ( Alabama ) College ; Prof. Abner J. Phipps, Super- 
intendent Public Schools, Lewiston, Maine. 

We quote a single extra6l from a letter by the late Hon. Wil- 
liam E. Dodge, of New York City, the retired Christian merchant. 
He says : 

''As I read it I could not but wish that it might be put in a 
cheap and popular style, so as to secure a wide circulation in our 
railroad cars, to take the place of the miserable trash which is 
thus being sown broadcast over the land, growing up to destroy 
the precious youth." 

Occasionally an order was received from an anxious mother, 
which indicated the depth of a "mother's love" — not expressible 
on paper — requesting a copy to be mailed to "my son, away from 
home. Write his name on the 'fly leaf,' 'from mother.'" 

One pastor writes that he has recommended the New Com- 
mentary to the young men of his congregation ^'from. the pulpits 
A well-known Boston pastor says that "the New Commentary 
ought to be in every Sabbath school." A principal in Ohio rec- 
ommended it as a "reading book" for the public schools. Super- 



PREFACE. xi 

intendents, teachers in Sabbath schools, and business men, have 
ordered from one to a dozen copies for presents to young men in 
whose welfare they felt a deep interest. 

The first edition had a wide circulation, reaching every state 
and territory, and the Canadas, and many were sent "across the 
water." In the revision we have aimed to make this edition 
superior to the first in many particulars, which are here appar- 
ent. The handsome dress, with its brilliant armor — the superb 
paper, the beautiful and clear type, the telling illustrations — can 
but attract the eye; while the " words that burn" — its living prin- 
ciples — ought to absorb the thoughts of the inmost soul of every 
young man who may be awake to the mighty possibilities that 
await him, and are within his grasp. 

We hope and trust that these undying principles may be woven 
into the web of the life of every young man into whose hands 
this little book shall fall, to be a beacon light to illuminate his 
pathway along the margin of that illimitable ocean which he 
may hereafter be permitted to traverse in the exploration of 
the mysteries of that vast universe which is now veiled from 
mortal vision. 

A WORD TO PARENTS. 

The New Commentary is sent on its mission in the fullest con- 
fidence, with the utmost faith, believing that no young man can 
carefully read it through without being strongly impressed with 
the convi6lion that "life is worth living," and living well; that its 
principles and teachings must tend to inspire faith in himself, by 
encouraging, strengthening, and stimulating him with a desire to 
emulate the examples of self-made mien, and to resolve to "go 
and do likewise" — to choose some worthy life-purpose upon 
which to concentrate his entire energies ; that it may be the 
means of rescuing some young men from impending ruin who 
may already be on the "down grade," whose feet are treading 
close by the threshold of despair — which once crossed is to be 
doomed. 

If, however, the New Commentary shall be the means of res- 
cuing one young man on the brink of that spanless chasm — a 



xii PREFACE. 

vicftim of that most-to-be-feared, and of all evils the most to be 
dreaded (who can conceive of a worse evil?) — that insidious 
foe that lurks within the gilded covers of the too popular books 
of the news-stands and railway trains — those masked demons, 
coiled from sight, but filled with the most virulent poison, deadly 
venom. Those vile sensational stories, gilding over vice, paint- 
ing crime in such glowing colors that it would seem a virtue to 
do evil, the influence of which is more to be dreaded than the 
most venomous reptiles of an African jungle, were they lurking 
beneath our sidewalks, watching for an opportunity to infli6l 
every passer-by with their deadly bite. If one young man shall 
be rescued from so great a peril, our efforts will not have been in 
vain. 

The Author. 
Park Place, Davenport, Iowa, 1884. 



PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 

When an author writes a book he is supposed to have an objed: 
in view. He should certainly have some purpose, though it may 
be difficult for his readers to discern what it is. 

We must confess that for years we have had a desire to write a 
book, and our desire is now gratified. We sele6led the name, 
^^ Kent's New Commentary,'^ because we thought it the most sug- 
gestive, and as comprehensive as any we could hit upon. We 
believe that commentaries, as a rule, treat upon various and sun- 
dry subjedls, and in this particular we judge the reader will be 
satisfied with the number we have introduced. 

■K- ^ ^ -X- ^ -X- ^ 

With this brief preface we lay down our pen, with the sincere 
hope that our labors may, in some measure, be rewarded, by ac- 
complishing some good wherever our little book goes. If some 
pathways are made brighter, and every home it enters made hap- 
pier, we shall be more than satisfied. 

The Author. 
Park Place, Davenport, Iowa, 1880, 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 
PRELUDE, 17 

A Boy Lost, 17 ; Must Have a Guide, 22. 



PART I. 

THE MISSING HOST, - 24 

"Missing, My Son!" — "Ten Thousand Dollars Reward," 24; 
The New Hampshire Boy, 26. 

THE SCHEMES OF SWINDLERS, - - 29 

The Minister's Son, 29; The Clergyman From Illinois, 30; 
Sharp Men are Bitten, 31. 

SOWING AND REAPING, -.----... 33 

Patiently Waiting, 34; Stick to Your Business, 35; Don't Cut 
the Corners, 35; Laying the Foundation, 36 ; The Fall of the 
Pemberton Mill, 37 ; The Davenport Bridge, 38 ; Chara6ler- 
Building, 38 ; Admiral Farragut at Ten Years of Age, 40. 

FORTUNE, 42 

What to Do, 43; Fortune-Telling, 45; The Astrologers, 45; 
The "Spirits," 48; The Gypsies, 49; The Fortune-Teller, 51. 

READING FICTION, - 51 

Dime Novels, 53 ; What to Read, 55 ; How the Man Went to 
the Circus, 56; Improving Literature, 58; Fighting the In- 
dians, 60 ; Sad End of One Young Man Ruined by Bad Books, 
64 ; Good Books to Read, 66. 

HEALTH, 68 

Good Living, 69; Cleanliness, 70; The Best Medicine, 71; Be- 
ware of the Do6tors, 73 ; The Conne6licut Do6tor's Remedy, 
77; Invalid's Retreat, 77 ; Getting Up in the Morning, 78; How 
to Develop Lung-Power, 78; Ministers vs. Lawyers, 80; Ad- 
vice, 82. ^ 

HABITS, - - 83 

A Horrible Death, 83 ; Filthy Habits, 84 ; Good Manners, 86 ; 
Dress, 86. 



xiv CONTENTS. 

Page. 

HOW TO DESERVE SUCCESS, --------- 88 

Politeness, 88; Two Ways of Doing the Same Thing, 88; Did 
it Pay ? 90 ; Thirty-five Thousand Dollars a Year, 90 ; Profitable 
Politeness, 90; Hotel Clerk, 92; Please Your Employers, 92; 
Make Your Employer's Business Yours, 94; Pacific Mills, Law- 
rence, Massachusetts, 96 ; Put On the Appearance of Business, 
97 ; Don't Be Above Your Business, 99 ; Choice of Boarding- 
Houses, 100. 

HOW TO INSURE SUCCESS, --------- 102 

Pluck, 102; A Sermon in a Paragraph, 103; Waiting For the 
Elevator, 103 ; Burned His Ship — Blew Up the Bridge, 105 ; Do 
Not Procrastinate, 106. 

THE BATTLE OF LIFE, ---------- 107 

The Conflict is Yours — Are You Ready For the Battle? 107; 
Opposition, 108 ; Every One Must Take Care of His Own 
Head, 108; General Zachary Taylor, 109; On the Voyage — 
Each One His Own Pilot, no; What Every Young Man Must 
Have, 112; Don't Give Up, 112; Perseverance, 113; How John 
Morrisey Went to Congress, 114; Catching the Train, 115; 
Ten Thousand Dollars Lost ! Ten Thousand Dollars Won ! 
116; How We Learned to Play the Organ, 116; Experience 
Must Be Paid For, 123. 

HOW SOME MEN HAVE SUCCEEDED, ------ 124 

Economy the Secret, 124 ; Emma Abbott, 127 ; Working to 
Win, 128 ; Keep Out of Debt, 130. 

HINDRANCES TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER, 131 

Is Poverty a Hindrance? 131; Money Well Earned Goes the 
Furthest, 133 ; There are Many Things Money Cannot Buy, 135. 

BRAINS AND LABOR: RESULT— SUCCESS, ----,- 137 
Brain-Power, 137 ; The Path-Finder, 138 ; Want a Turnpike, 
139; Born Great, 139; After the Bugs and Rocks, 140; How 
One Man Won, 144. 

MEN WHO STARTED AT THE FOOT OF THE LADDER, - - 146 
President Johnson, the Tailor, 153 ; Hiram Sibley, the Famous 
Millionaire of Western New York, 153; A Plucky Boy, 155; 
Gun- Boats, 158; The Great Undertaking, 158; The St Louis 
Bridge, 159. 

WHAT BRINGS HAPPINESS, 160 

Happiness vs. Gold, 160; A Millionaire's Enjoyments, 163 ; One 
Wealthy Lady's Experience, 164; Poor Richard's Advice, 166. 

INDULGENCE OF APPETITE, - - - - 167 

Ruined by Whisky, 167; "Wanted — A Boy to Attend Bar," 
172; Temperance, 173; Tobacco as Vile as Whisky, 174; "To- 
bacco Does Not Hurt Me," 175 ; Delmonico's, 175. 



CONTENTS. XV 

Page. 
CIGAR-STUBS AND OPIUM, ----.-..- 178 

The Dele6lable Ingredients of the Modern Cigarette — A Grow- 
ing Vice, 178 ; Smoker's Catarrh, 180 ; A Bill to Make Idiots, 
181. 

WHISKY VS. HOME, 182 

How Are the Mighty Fallen? 182; Fire, Sleigh-Ride, etc., 192; 
Boston Red-Tape — Two Beautiful Children Frozen to Death, 
204 ; James Noxx's Home, 212 ; A Lesson From the Noxx 
Family, 218. 

HAPPY HOMES, 220 

A Wife, 220; Falling in Love, 222; Business is Business, 223; 
The Modern Belle, 224; Good House-Keepers Are a Rarity, 
226 ; What Iowa Girls Are Taught, 228 ; Unhappily Mated, 230 ; 
The Girl of the Sort to Get, 232; Some of the Evidences of 
Conjugal Felicity, 233; A Wife to Her Husband, 236; Newly- 
Married Couples, 238; "In Ye Olden Time," 239; There is 
Nothing Too Good For Man, 241; A Song For the "Hearth 
and Home," 242. 

THE MAGNITUDE OF TRIFLES, 243 

Trifles — Little Things, 244; The Chicago Fire, 245; A City 
Destroyed, 246 ; Fourth of July Time, 248 ; Discovery of Steam, 
249; Ele6lricity — Its Pow-er, 251; Trifling with Human Life, 
253 ; Whisky Did It, 255 ; The Terrible Result of One Bo3''s 
Sin, 256 ; Small Beginnings, 257. 

ACTION ! ACTION ! ! ACTION ! ! ! - - - - - - - 258 

Talent and Ambition, 259 ; Political Honors Unsatisfying, 260 ; 

EXAMPLES OF HEROISM, 260 

Napoleon Bonaparte, 260 ; Florence Nightingale, 263 ; Every- 
Day Heroes, 265 ; A True Hero, 266 ; Frank Hamilton's Tragic 
Death, 268. 

WHAT SHALL I LIVE FOR, 270 

What I Live For, 270. 

SUBLIMITY OF A PURPOSE, - 271 

The Emperor of Russia's Way of Building"" Railroads, 273 ; In- 
dependence, 273 ; Crazy Inventor, 274; " Fulton's Folly," 274; 
The World's Martyrs, 275 ; Palissy, the Potter, 276 ; The Im- 
passable Barrier, 278 ; Opposition, 280 ; The Discoverer of the 
Planet Vulcan, 282 ; Communism, 282 ; Revolution Among the 
M. D.'s, 283 ; The Old Meeting-House that Stood On the Hill, 
284 ; The Student, 286 ; The Mysteries of the Centuries, 288. 

EXAMPLES OF MEN WHO HAVE LIVED FOR A PURPOSE, - 290 
Horace '.Maynard — Setting His Mark High, 290 ; Johns Hop- 
kins's Purpose, 290 ; The Wrecker, 292 ; Saved From the 
Wreck, 294 ; Peter Cooper, the Great Philanthropist, 296. 



xvi CONTENTS. 

Pa 
DELUSIONS OF THE AGE, - - - - 301 

The "Mirage," 301; Thirst, 302; Thirsting for Fame, 303; 
Thirsting for Honors, 304. 



PART II. 

PRACTICAL BUSINESS PRECEPTS, 307 

Integrity of Chara6ler, 307 ; Hon. John Friedley's Motto, 309 ; 
Amos Lawrence's Way of Dealing with Customers, 309 ; Hugh 
Miller, 310 ; Maxims of Successful Men, 310 ; John McDon- 
ough's Rules, 311 ; Reserve Power, 312. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Frontispiece. 

Portrait of Author. 

Ornamental Tablet for Name of Giver and Receiver. 

The Lost Boy, - - - - - - - - - 21 

Fortune-Telling, --.-.-._ ^^ 

Learning to Play the Organ, ..__._ jjg 

Wreck of the Gray Eagle, .--.._ j^q 

Burning Steamer on Lake Michigan, - - - - - 265 



PRELUDE. 



A BOY LOST ! 

In September, 1878, we spent a few days with a farmer 
residing upon one of the lofty hills of the '' Granite State '* 
— the Switzerland of America. The location was one of rare 
beauty ; admirable for enjoying a view, wonderfully diver- 
sified, charming, sublime. The harmonious blending of 
mountain and valley, lake and forest ; the cottages of the 
farmers, nestling among the hills, or high up on some lofty 
eminence ; the gorgeous hues of the maples and other 
deciduous trees, richer in color, in the blending, in all the 
diversity of shading imaginable, surpassing the highest con- 
ception of the best imitations of nature's art-painting — all 
combined forming a landscape of marvellous attractions — 
perfectly grand. To our eyes unsurpassed ; one that no 
human skill could transfer to canvass. We are inclined to 
believe nature has not duplicated it. 

Looking southward from our location, down across well- 
cultivated fields, were the grand old woods, beyond and 
above which arose a high ridge of hills sweeping around in 
a half circle, east and west, where they terminated abruptly, 
leaving gateways wide open, through which came to view 
villages with their church spires, and the dwellings of the 
farmers. 



18 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

Looking westward, still more remote arose other ranges 
of hills, covered with the native forest. The Connecticut 
river — with Bellows falls, eleven miles away, the roar of 
which could be distinctly heard — flowed between the two 
states. Beyond the river towered ridge after ridge, each 
succeeding one growing loftier, until lost in the famous 
Green mountains of Vermont, fifty miles distant. 

One who has never witnessed a New England sunset can- 
not conceive the gorgeousness of the scene, here in its 
glory. Directly south loomed up the lofty head of old Mo- 
nadnock, forty miles away. Beacon fires on a Fourth of July 
night have here been lighted, flashing their smiles upon 
Bunker Hill monument, seventy-five miles to the southward. 
To the north-east, one hundred miles distant, we almost 
seemed to see the White mountains up among the clouds. 

Having scanned the most striking objects in the distance, 
we will look at those less prominent. A little way to the 
east is a little lakelet surrounded by hills, its margin skirted 
with forest trees, its surface placid, its waters cold and deep. 
Only one person, a boy, who stole out from his home on a 
Sunday afternoon to have a skate on the newly-formed ice, 
was ever known to have been drowned in its waters. The 
boy's hat upon the ice revealed his sad fate. Looking 
south-west over a forest of evergreen trees, on a plain, is a 
little country village with its white cottages. Just beyond 
this another lakelet, exceedingly beautiful. For more than 
a century it has been a favorite resort for people near and 
far away. The late Rev. Dr. Vinton, of New York city, 
and family, spent many a summer vacation, enjoying the 
hospitality of a farmer^s home near by, or riding on the 
lake, or fishing daily in its waters. One of the most remark- 
able facts is, that of the many thousands who have here 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 19 

bathed, fished, sailed, and skated, not one has ever been 
known to have been drowned. 

We now come to the place and point of our story. The 
home that now affords us a delightful resting-place super- 
seded the original log-cabin, built when the country was a 
''howling wilderness." The entire region was then covered 
with a dense forest, except the little clearing which had been 
made around the homes of the early pioneers. There were 
no roads, except foot-paths, or " Indian trails/' The guide- 
boards were '* blazed *' trees. About one hundred and fifty 
years ago a man and his wife and a little boy named Jacob, 
had their home in that cabin. The father, when time per- 
mitted, was cutting away the forest to broaden his fields for 
cultivation, to grow his grain and vegetables. 

One pleasant afternoon the little boy asked his mother if 
he might go out and see his father chop down the great 
trees. The mother said he could go, and come in with his 
father at night. When the day's labor was over, the father 
returned to his cabin. The mother, not seeing her little boy 
with him, asked, "Where is Jacob?" The father did not 
know ; had not seen him. Instantly it flashed upon them 
that Jacob was lost. Hurriedly they went out to look for 
him. They called and searched — searched until night's 
sable drapery settled down upon the black forest. He was 
not found. They returned to their lonely cabin. It was very 
dark within. The sunlight, the light of that home, the little 
sunbeam, was not there. The supper had been prepared 
and was on the table. There lay the little pewter plate ; 
there stood the little chair. Each whispered, '' missing." 
The rude playthings upon the floor whispered, " missing," 
The supper was untouched ; how could they eat ! All night 
long they watched. How could they close their eyes in 



20 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

sleep when the fate of Httle Jacob was weighing them down, 
crushing out their fondest hopes, centered and bound up in 
their Httle treasure ! In vain did they pile the wood upon 
the fire, or set a light in the window, hoping to attract his 
weary feet in their wanderings homeward. In vain did they 
peer out into the pitchy darkness, or call, "Jacob! Jacob! 
O, Jacob ! " In vain did they listen to hear the child's voice 
calling to papa or mama to come quick ! No responses came, 
but the doleful ''hoot" of some great owl, or the growl of 
bears, for they were dwellers in the woods. The harrowing 
and most unwelcome thoughts would come to them : '' Has 
he been killed by the bears?" ''Are they growling over 
■his bones with whetted appetites for more human blood?" 

The long night passed slowly away. Early in the morn- 
ing light the father hastens to the nearest neighbors, a mile 
away, to tell of their great distress. The news was sent 
speedily to other neighbors, and with alacrity and sympathy 
all responded. The entire day was spent in the most vig- 
orous and careful search. Not a trace could be discovered. 
Another night of fearful forebodings drove sleep from the 
disconsolate family. The second day dawned. Great num- 
bers came to join in the hunt. When the sun again went 
down behind the green hills of Vermont, no tidings had 
been brought to the sorrowing parents. Not a foot-print 
had been seen. The night set in ; the deepest gloom over- 
shadowed that humble cottage — black darkness. 

The morning of the third day came at last. It is said 
that five hundred men came that day to join in the hunt, 
the news having spread to the more thickly settled neigh- 
borhoods. They were earnest men, and they engaged in 
the search with a determination to find the boy or learn 
something of his fate. The day wore away, and all had 




■' Hearts almost ceased to beat, so great was the intense anxiety." 

{Page 21.) 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 21 

returned from the hunt, the problem unsolved — a mystery 
of mysteries. All were preparing to return to their homes, 
having abandoned all hopes of finding the boy ; further 
search was declared hopeless and useless. The mother 
learned the decision they had made, and in almost frantic 
agony she came to the door and said that if she only knew 
that little Jacob was dead she would be satisfied ; but the 
terrible thought that, he might still be alive, sick, dying of 
hunger and cold, alone, with no kind hand to soothe his last 
moments, or no loving friend or dear mother to listen to his 
little sad story of his being lost, and how he had wandered 
so far away from his home to die alone in the woods, was 
more painful than she could endure. Brave men wept who 
never shed a tear before. It moved them to activity. It 
was proposed that one more effort should be made at once, 
although night was near at hand. They formed' into com- 
panies, each taking separate directions. Signals were agreed 
upon, and quickly they disappeared in the woods. A few 
remained to console the mother. In breathless silence they 
stood around the door, hoping to hear a signal. At last 
the echo of a distant gun away down by the lake reverber- 
ated up through the woods. It was a relief A trace, a 
shoe or hat, or his bones, perhaps, have been found. Anx- 
iously they listen, hoping against hope, to hear another 
signal. It comes, he is found ! " Is he alive or dead ? " In 
breathless silence all were eager to hear. Hearts almost 
ceased to beat, so great was the intense anxiety, fearing they 
might not hear the last signal. It came — "Jacob is alive ! " 
The great old woods re-echoed the gladsome refrain : 
" Jacob is alive ! " " Is alive ! " " Alive ! " reverberated 
through the valleys and over the hill-tops. Companies far 
away caught the echoes, as one company after another 



22 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

passed the gladsome tidings along : "Jacob is found." The 
old woods rang as never before, from five hundred voices 
in glad shouts of joy. Gun after gun answered other guns 
in carrying the news to the most distant. The victorious 
party soon came in sight, bearing triumphantly the little 
hero on their shoulders, seated on a hastily constructed 
*' chair " made of poles and evergreen boughs, and presented 
him alive and well to the overjoyed mother. There was joy 
in that home that night. 

MUST HAVE A GUIDE.. 

People unaccustomed to travel in our country, when they 
are about to start on their first journey, procure the latest 
guide-book and consult it carefully before starting, and then 
take it along with them so as to be sure that they do not 
make any mistakes, or get on a wrong train, to be carried in 
a wrong direction. We have seen persons almost frantic for 
fear they would make a mistake. Every time the train 
stopped they would hop up and ask the conductor, or brake- 
man, or the passengers, " Is this Albany ? " or whatever 
place they were to stop, 

Now, a journey of a few days is nothing in comparison to 
a journey for life. Yet how heedless and unconcerned many 
young men are about it. They " don't care." When they 
start out on that track they are on a down grade, and every 
revolution increases their momentum. They are like the 
engineer, who, neglecting to apply the brakes in time, lost 
control of his train, and all went to destruction. We see 
young men with noble talents, going from homes where 
everything has been done that could be done for them, to 
fit them for honorable positions in society, disregarding 
the pleadings of a kind father, the tears of a devoted and 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 23 

anxious mother and a loving sister, plunging into dissipa- 
tions. They are on the down grade, and all the signals 
and alarm-bells are warning them of the fearful risks they 
are running, and the impending dangers just ahead. Blind 
and deaf to them all, they rush on in their mad career to 
swift destruction. Many a father would give all he is 
worth, thousands of dollars, even — yea, a hundred thousand 
dollars, if he had it, if his son would only come back to the 
home he has left. Many a father has bowed his head in 
shame over the downward course of a wayward son, and 
gone down to the grave before his time in the deepest grief. 
Some have had the sad experience of standing over the 
grave of a son, as a gentleman did in France. Read what 
he said as he stood at the grave of his profligate son : 

'' Gentlemen," said the father, in a voice full of emotion, 
'' the body before me was that of my son. He was a young 
man in the prime of life, with a sound constitution, which 
ought to have insured him a hundred years. But miscon- 
duct, drunkenness, and debauchery, of the most disgrace- 
ful kind, brought him in the flower of his age to the ditch 
which you see before you. Let this be an example to you 
and to your children. Let us go hence." 

We have said what we have in our Prelude, with the 
hope of arresting the attention of every young man into 
whose hands this little book shall fall, and that it may be a 
True Guide to him every day as long as he shall live, a 
guide to the only pathway to prosperity and happiness — to 
heaven. 



PART 1. 

THE MISSING HOST. 

'' MISSING, MY SON ! — TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS 
REWARD." 

There have been hundreds, thousands of boys lost since 
'* Jacob's " time. Yes, and only a few have ever been found. 
Boys and young me.i are being lost every day in the year, 
and every year, "Missing, my son!" could be posted on 
every street corner in every town and every city in the 
land. No five hundred men to look up each lost boy. Very 
few are ever found — many have wandered far away, become 
wrecks, and have no desire to be found, or when found to 
be carried back to their father's house. What an army it 
would make if all the lost and ''missing" young men were 
placed in a line ; no division of General Grant's army 
would have equaled it in length. 

Many young men leave their homes so confident in all 
their childish innocence. Ignorant of the great outside 
world, so different from the little country home where they 
know every man, woman, and child about them ; where 
they perhaps conceived of their homes as the center about 
which the world revolves. The world swung around their 
homes as its center. 

The story of our Prelude is a true one, and our object in 
giving it a place in this book is to make it an illustration 
clear and strong, so that no young man shall mistake our 
aim or his way. 

24 



KENT'S NE W COM MEN TA R Y. 25 

Boys who run away from home we do not expect to 
reach ; but we hope to gain the ear of many who go away 
because they must go if they are to accompUsh any good 
in the world for themselves or anybody else ; and also those 
who are compelled by necessity to " strike out." It is a 
momentous period in any young man's life, when the time 
comes to bid adieu to his home, to go out to seek his for- 
tune, to be his own pilot. A trackless pathway is before 
him, and every step is new. Only one step of the way can 
be seen — only one at a time. The curtain is lifted to reveal 
no faster and no more. No two steps are alike ; each day 
the scenes are shifted. If you make a mistake you cannot 
correct it, or rub it out and commence anew. The chariot 
wheels of your car are running at the velocity of seventy 
miles (heart-beats) to the minute, day and night; and there 
is only one stopping-place — that comes when the little en- 
gine within you stops pumping life's crimson blood through 
your veins. So that every mistake you make is so much 
time lost that cannot be made up — no calling back lost 
time. The web of life runs right on, and if you fail to 
weave in the woof as it passes, it will not be filled. " O, 
weave it well." We have seen, so many unfortunate young 
men ; so many who have made sad failures, that we have 
wished that we had a trumpet through which we could 
sound the notes of alarm that should reach the ears of every 
young man in the country, before he starts out from home. 
Little do they know of the dangers that will assail them on 
the first day they shall commence to act for themselves. 
They little know of the hungry wolves in sheep's clothing 
ready to pounce upon them at the first opportunity. 



26 KEATS NEW COMMENTARY. 



THE NEW HAMPSHIRE BOY. 

A young man left his home in New Hampshire for Boston. 
It was his first ride on a railroad. You would have known 
him from all the other passengers, by the way he sat on his 
seat, by the way he looked at everybody, and at everything 
in the car or outside. We can tell a new passenger on his 
first ride on the cars every time, without his speaking a 
word. At the depot at Boston there were a score just wait- 
ing for him. They knew he was on that train. Only one 
was in time to welcome him — one was enough. How glad 
he was to see him. He grasped his hand with all the cor- 
diahty of '* my long-lost brother." He took his satchel to 
carry. Would go with him anywhere he wanted to go, 
and find him a boarding-house. Or, if he preferred, would 
show him right up to a tip top house where "/ stop." Of 
course, he was glad to go right there. Such a warm, hearty 
reception was what he had not expected. He was just 
waiting for a chance to declare his gratitude for all this at- 
tention. He had to exclaim several times, " How lucky I 
am to have met you right at the depot." '' I felt a little tim- 
id coming down alone where all were strangers." "First 
time in my life I was ever so far from home." " Father 
told me to be careful who I went with." '' I suppose there 
are some men that would steal a fellow's pocket-book if 
they got a chance." " I am so glad I met you right there." 

The trap was not set for naught. The '' bait " took. He 
is a victim. Would he like to see the sights of a great city ? 
'* I don't care if I do." After supper they saunter out ; the 
nice young man takes the arm of the country youth. They 
stop in front of one of the gilded palaces. It is brilliantly 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 27 

lighted ; the doors, with rich stained glass panels, hang on 
compound hinges, that swing both ways, in or out. Strains 
of music float out on the evening air. " Would he like to 
step in ? " " Do they let a feller in there who don't have no 
ticket?" " O, yes ; those who are acquainted are allowed 
to take in a friend if he looks pretty well." (Flattery.) ''1 
don't care if I do go in." 

The door swings in for them. The splendor of the costly 
chandeliers, with thousands of glass pendants flashing a 
million rainbows. The great ^mirrors — all the walls are 
mirrors — multiplying the guests many fold to his eyes. " I 
wonder!" is the extent of his expletives. He is simply 
bewildered. He is invited to take a seat. He sits down on 
a richly stuffed chair, which yields so readily to his weight 
that he is frightened. He is assured no harm is done, '' they 
are made that way." Would he not take a glass of lemon- 
ade? "I pay for it; you are my guest. It is a custom 
with me to always treat a stranger on his first visit to our 
city." 

Soon a young man approaches and announces that '' the 
drawing of the grand prize of $50,000 is to come off in a 
few minutes ; if you wish to see it gentlemen, please walk 
up stairs ; it is free." " Would you like to see the drawing? 
$50,000 is a big pile." " I don't care if I do." 

Up stairs a large hall, magnificently fitted up, astonishes 
the country lad beyond language to express. The ticket- 
office is open for the next grand drawing. Here are tables 
at which are seated men playing cards for money, and 
various other devices. They watch the game and see how 
fast money changes hands. A rough-looking fellow tries 
his hand. He just sweeps the board every time. The pilot 
begins to warm up, and proposes to try his hand at the 



28 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

game. He puts his hand in his pocket to draw his money. 
'' I declare if I have not left my pocket-book at the hotel, 
in my trunk. I just want to try my hand with these fellows 
once. If I can't scoop them I am greatly mistaken. By the 
way, if you have a little money, fifty or one hundred dol- 
lars, I would like to borrow it until we get back to the hotel, 
if you have no objection. I will give you half the profits." 
" Of course I will. Let you have all I have got." He hands 
over seventy-five dollars, with the remark, '' That is the 
first money I ever earned. I would let you have more if I 
had it. It took twenty-five dollars to buy these clothes, and 
then I had to pay for my ticket." At first the game goes 
well, and he is delighted. The seventy-five dollars have 
doubled. He gets excited ; thirty-seven dollars and fifty 
cents made so quick for him. It took him nearly four 
months at home to earn so much. The play goes on, and 
they are beaten. The last five dollars is staked and lost. 
The pilot says, '' I was a little careless or I should not have 
lost. I see just where I have made the mistake. I shall 
try this over again. I believe in the old saying, to ' look 
for your money where you lose it.' Well, its no matter, its 
my loss ; you are all right. I will return the seventy-five 
as soon as we get to the hotel. Perhaps we had better go, 
its getting a little late." 

The door now swings out for them. They proceed down 
street a few blocks, when all at once the pilot exclaims, 
'' There, I forgot to mail a letter ; just wait a minute and I 
will run around the corner and drop it in the box, and come 
right back." The gentleman from the country w^aited on 
the corner — waited a long w^hile, waited so long that a 
policeman waited upon him to the lock-up. Not a dollar 
of his hard earnings for a whole year's toil had he left. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 29 

Was not his experience bitter, very bitter? It is only one 
case out of a hundred that is played every day in the year 
on young men right from the country. 



THE SCHEMES OF SWINDLERS. 

THE minister's SON. 

A young man, the son of a minister, was sent by his 
father, to Chicago, with a load of wheat to sell. He did 
not return. The father became alarmed. He visited the 
city, and vainly looked for his ''missing" son. The father 
abandoned everything, spent all his time and money to find 
his boy. He traveled from city to city, from town to vil- 
lage. If he had an opportunity to preach he would do so, 
and at the close of the sermon tell of his lost son, hoping 
some one somewhere would know of his boy. He traveled 
up and down the earth, wherever there was any hope of 
hearing of him. After many months of diligent search 
throughout the great north-west, he went to California, 
and whenever he had an opportunity to preach, he did so, 
always closing with the story of his missing son. At last 
the lost son happened to be present, and heard his father 
tell of his agony and sufifering over the loss of his son. It 
was too much for the boy. He could not hide any longer 
from his father. He told his father the whole story, how 
he had sold the wheat, and got the money for it, and was 
allured into a gambling den, lost the money, and was 
ashamed to return home; so he sold the team and ''here I 
am." The father only replies, "Enough! Say no more; 
let us go home." 



30 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

THE CLERGYMAN FROM ILLINOIS. 

Every day in the year the papers sound the alarm, 
''Look out!" ''Beware!" The simple pass on into the 
very jaws of the sharks who grow fat on the game in spite 
of all the daily warnings. Ministers are just as liable to be 
"roped in" as a "verdant" from the country. 

A good old Presbyterian minister of Illinois went to New 
York city recently, where he was gladly welcomed by some 
nice young men. Learning he was a minister they took 
special interest in showing him around and warning him 
against a very wicked class of "stool-pigeons," who were 
always lying around depots and hotels ready to w^elcome 
strangers, pretending to be philanthropists, to protect new- 
comers from being swindled, and to direct them to suitable 
boarding-houses. The good old minister was very glad of 
the timely warning; that they were really engaged in a no- 
ble Christian work. He was un'aware of the " stool-pigeon " 
system, which the devil had so thoroughly perfected to 
lead innocent young men to ruin. He should go home and 
preach a sermon on the subject to his young men, warning 
them not to come to so wicked a city as New York. 

" Would you like to see how one of their games is played 
to rob unsophisticated young men of their money ? " " Cer- 
tainly, I would be very glad to learn, now I am here, all I 
can about these * human sharks.'" "If you will just step 
around the corner we shall be pleased to show you how 
one of their tricks is successfully played every time on the 
unsuspecting." He steps around. A few greenbacks are 
needed to illustrate the game. The minister lays down the 
money; he sees the game played — and played well. He 
is satisfied with the skill with which it is performed, but 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A BY, 31 

wofully chagrined when he finds that he is the victim of the 
wicked young men he was warned to steer clear of. 

SHARP MEN ARE BITTEN. 

The devil has just as sharp and shrewd men in his em- 
ploy as there are in the world. 

A bank ofhcer of our city was once taken in by a sharper 
in Chicago so nicely that he did not know it, until he was a 
victim. He boasts at home of being "sharp'* and "keen." 

A very common way to draw out a victim is this : A 
stranger will step up to a gentleman and offer his hand, 
and in the most bland and familiar way say, *',How do you 
do, Mr. Jones ? Glad to see you. When did you come to 
town ? " " Excuse me, sir, my name is Smith." " O, yes, I 

know it is Smith, you are from" "Davenport, Iowa." 

" Yes. Davenport is a beautiful city. By the way who is 
your congressman now? " "Price." "What Price?" "Hon. 
Hiram Price." " You don't say so; why Hiram is an own 
uncle of mine ; he is a smart man if I do say it. I ought 
to go down and see Uncle Price ; he has invited me repeat- 
edly to make him a visit. The fact of it is I am doing too 
much business ; much more than I ought to do. I don't 
have any time to visit my old father, even. It is all wrong. 
By the way, Mr. Smith, when do you return?" "I go 
home on the lo P. M. train." " I have a good mind to run 
down to Davenport with you to-night. Can just as well go 
to-night as any time. I believe I will go if I can arrange 
my business. I have a car-load of horses, blooded stock, 
coming in from the north-west to send to Boston. If I can 
get them transferred to the Michigan Central in time, I be- 
lieve I will go. Perhaps I could buy a car-load of horses at 
Davenport, and make expenses." He was at the train on 



32 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

time. He engaged a section, and very generously offered 
Mr. Smith the privilege of enjoying it with him gratis. 
Two minutes before the train started in rushed a man all 
out of breath to collect " back charges " on that car-load of 
blooded stock. The sharper apologises for neglecting to 
have called and settled the bill at the freight office. He 
has not money enough, but plenty of drafts ; one of five 
hundred dollars, one of five thousand dollars. The col- 
lector couldn't make the change. Mr. Smith is asked if he 
couldn't cash a five hundred dollar draft. No, he had only 
two hundred and fifty dollars, in currency. The bell is 
ringing for the train to move. The sharper says to Mr. 
Smith, '' Here are drafts on the Davenport National Bank 
for five thousand — Price's bank you know — if you will 
allow me to take your currency I will give you the draft to 
hold for security until we reach Davenport, and then you 
can have it cashed, take out the amount and give me the 
balance." Mr. Smith hands over the currency. The 
sharper wanted to say "good-bye to an old friend outside," 
and that was the last time Mr. Smith saw the Hon. Hiram 
Price's nephew. He found his draft was ''bogus" when he 
offered it to the bank. 

Similar games are played every day in the year upon 
strangers, with variations to suit circumstances.^ Some- 
times three or more go for one man ; each has a special 
part to play. The first man will find out name, home, busi- 
ness, etc., then a "trap" is prepared, and the kind of 
"bait" to set it with. Another will drive in the game. 
The last man takes the money. Although the papers daily 
publish accounts of similar swindling operations, and the 
police stand at the doors of mock auction rooms to warn 
the unsuspecting of the danger within, the victims pass in 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 



33 



only to be swindled, as others have been for years and 
years. 



SOWING AND REAPING. 

Think the good, 

And not the clever ; 

Thoughts are seeds / 

Thai grow forever, 

Bearing richest fruits i?i life. 

Such alone can make 

The thinker 

Strong to conquer in the strife. 

Love the good, 

And not the clever. 

Noble men ! 

The w^orld can never 

Cease to praise the good they've done. 

They alone the true 

Who gather 

Harvests which their deeds have done. 

Do the good. 

And not the clever. 

Fill thy life 

With true endeavor ; 

strive to be the noblest man, 

Not what others do. 

But, rather. 

Do the very best you can. 

—y. H. Hoadley. 

The inevitable law of whatsoever a farmer sows, that 
must he reap in harvest, is equally true in the physical 
world. The farmer sows wheat and always gets wheat in 
return. Nature never changes or reverses her laws. If 
the farmer fails to plow and cultivate his land in the spring- 
time, and sow his seed early, he will have no wheat in har- 
vest, and weeds will grow instead, and sap its fertility. If a 

—3 



34 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

young man fails to sow the good seed in the morning of 
his days, early in life to cultivate his mind, and store it 
with valuable and useful information, he will also fail of 
reaping the reward that he hopes to obtain eventually. If 
the golden opportunities are suffered to pass unheeded, the 
golden harvest-time will never come. You cannot be idle 
for years and keep your mind fresh and vigorous, and as 
quick and sharp to learn and retain what is learned. The 
hardening process cannot be overcome. You suffer a loss 
that cannot be made good, however hard you may try. 

PATIENTLY WAITING. 

The farmer sows the grain in early spring, that he may 
reap in autumn. He has to wait for the seed to germinate 
and pass through all the varied processes until it is matured 
grain. He does not plow it up in a week or a month, be- 
cause it has not matured. He has to wait patiently for the 
full maturity of the ripened grain. 

One of the greatest mistakes young men are liable to 
make lies in unwillingness to wait for the harvest. Because 
their labor, their sowing, does not bear fruit immediately, 
they throw up the scheme to try something else, which in 
its turn is also abandoned. They are continually changing, 
and the oftener they change the more unsettled become 
their minds and the greater the difficulty to buckle down to 
one thing and stick to it. They desire immediate returns 
for their investments, and because they cannot get them, 
they sell out at a sacrifice and go into something else. It 
has been well said that if any young man would go into 
any legitimate business and stick to it for ten years he 
would become independent. It requires courage, patience, 
and nerve. 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A R F. 35 

There is not so much in knowing what is the best thing 
to do, as there is in persistent adherence to the work we 
undertake. 

STICK TO YOUR BUSINESS. 

The secret of every man's success, who has worked his 
way up from poverty to affluence, is that he persistently 
appHed himself to his legitimate business. Early and late, 
ignoring all outside business, paying no attention whatever 
to the many schemes offered, which promise great returns 
for small investments, however flattering they may be. 
We have often seen good mechanics who could earn three 
dollars per day in the shop, trying to run a farm, or raising 
potatoes and vegetables that cost them at least four times 
as much as it would to have bought them of dealers. Some 
people conceive the idea that their neighbors' business 
yields vastly greater profits than their own. A weak and 
vacillating mind never accomplishes anything. A man un- 
dertook to run a barber shop. He undertook to shave 
three men- at once. They all got mad and left without be- 
ing shaved, and the barber got mad because he had not 
shaved anybody. '' Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." 

don't ''cut the corners." 

A great many young men are inclined to clip off the cor- 
ners, to round them off carelessly, and the more they clip 
the smaller becomes the circle, narrowing down their 
chances every round. Don't cut your corners. Leave 
them square as a brick. Maintain all the ground and hold 
all the chances you have; add to, instead of contracting. 
Your success depends upon holding your ground firmly; 
yielding none and adding when you can. 



36 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

LAYING THE FOUNDATION. 

*' Be true to yourself at the start, young man, 
Be true to yourself and God ; 
Ere you build your house mark well the spot, 
Test all the ground, and built you not 
On the sand or shaking sod," 

The very first step a young man takes for himself is the 
most important one of all. If he would be right all the 
time he must start right. The first thing a builder does 
when preparing to erect a good substantial building is to 
lay the foundation, deep, broad and on a solid footing. If 
he fails to do this he will repent of his folly when it is too 
late. A few years ago a granite block was' built in Boston 
some eight or nine stories high, and when it was completed, 
it was considered one of the best blocks in the city. Its 
substantial character made it to all appearance as lasting 
as the granite of which it was built. Tenants to occupy it 
were numerous. The builder had the utmost faith in it. 
They could ''pile it full of pig lead." But, alas, before it 
was half stocked with goods, it went down, filling the street 
with stone, bricks, broken timbers, and bales^of goods; 
and several persons were killed who had not time to escape. 
We saw the block when completed, we saw it in ruins. 
Why did it fall ? Down in the cellar were a few feet of an 
old wall, and to save a few dollars it was left, and when the 
enormous weight of the structure began to bear upon it, it 
could not stand the pressure, and the entire block fell in 
ruins. A hundred or .two hundred dollars' worth of work 
saved in the foundation was over a hundred thousand dol- 
lars loss in the end, and that was but a trifle in comparison 
with the lives sacrificed, which no money could repay. 

A few years ago a dam to a large reservoir in western 
Massachusetts broke, and instantly the vast body of water 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 37 

it contained was in motion and went rushing down the val- 
ley. It swept along with a fearful velocity, faster than the 
fleetest horse could run, carrying everything before it. 
Village after village was swept with the besom of destruc- 
tion. Shops, stores, dwelling-houses went down before that 
mighty flood. So suddenly it came that the people along 
its course had no time to save any of their property, while 
many were swallowed up before they could reach a place of 
safety. Millions of property destroyed, a half score of hap- 
py and prosperous villages in less than one brief hour were 
in ruins. Men of wealth were reduced to poverty. The 
mantle of death hung over many once happy homes — the 
living plunged into the deepest sorrow. All because the 
builder of the dam neglected the most important consider- 
ation of all — the foundation. Instead of going down to the 
bed rock, he built on the trunks of fallen trees, and other 
equally unreliable material for a foundation. 

THE FALL OF THE PEMBERTON MILL. 

The Pemberton mill, at Lawrence, Massachusetts, a few 
years ago, fell down while in full operation and full of op- 
eratives. The ruins immediately took fire, and one hun- 
dred and twenty-five lives were sacrificed. It was simply 
the result of the grossest carelessness of the superintendent, 
or master-builder. Iron columns were allowed to be put 
in that were defective in casting. They were thin as paper 
on one side and as thick as a plank on the other, when they 
should have been true to a hair-line all around. When 
the pressure came upon them they were crippled. All this 
came by trying to save a little money by getting work done 
cheaply. No man can afford to cheat himself in the foun- 



38 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

dation. So it is in character-building. Every one must 
look well to the foundation. If that is defective it will tell 
on him, and may bring him down. 

THE DAVENPORT BRIDGE. 

When the great iron bridge that spans the Father of 
Waters at this city was built, the utmost care was exercised 
in putting down the piers, to get them on a solid founda- 
tion. They went down until they struck the rock, and 
then cut down into the solid rock for the first layer, and 
bolted it down. The layers were cemented and doweled 
together, making a piece of masonr}^ as firm and solid as 
though it were hewn out of a quarry, one solid block. It 
will stand for centuries. Young man, lay your foundation 
deep. Go down to the bed rock! 

CHARACTER-BUILDING. 

A good reputation, based upon a good character, is a 
fortune to any young man. No one can eventually fill the 
positions in the community that he ought to fill, and which 
he hopes to fill, unless his character is spotless. Two men 
in two different counties in Illinois were elected to the office 
of treasurer of their respective counties. Neither could 
enter upon the duties of the office because he could not 
give the bonds required. The character of each for integ- 
rity and honesty was not sustained by their friends. Con- 
sequently they failed to get the offices, and the shadow will 
hang over them to the day of their death. 

Hundreds of young men fail to get good positions in 
banks and public offices because they cannot give bonds. 
A cloud rests on their reputation. Better to sacrifice your 
right arm, than to have a cloud of suspicion on your char- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, . 39 

acter. Remember that you are building up your character 
every day, every hour. The pubHc are scrutinizing it all 
the time, watching to see how you are building, how you 
are laying the foundation. The public have keen eyes and 
sensitive ears, and some terrible eaves-droppers to tell on 
a fellow. Telephone wires run to every man's door. 

Four young men went into an alley late one night to 
quarrel quietly over their ill-luck at a .gambling house. A 
night clerk in the post-office heard every word they said, 
and knew every voice. They were employed by firms in 
the city holding responsible positions. If their names had 
appeared in the morning papers there would have been 
some vacancies, and an advertisement like this would have 
appeared: "Wanted, a clerk; none but those having the 
best of references need apply." 

A gentleman was riding in a street-car, and heard two 
young men talking over a Sunday's carnival, and learned 
what this one and that one did, and what one of his own 
clerks did. He was thunderstruck. He could not believe 
it. It must be some other young man of the same name. 
It set him to thinking. He put a detective on his clerk's 
tracks, who followed him for two weeks. He put a watch 
on his every-day work, and on the cash drawer ; also on the 
customers that were always so particular to transact all 
their business wdth him. The detective reported, and the 
next day the young man was "off duty." He was not feel- 
ing well ; had not been feeling well of late. Thought he 
would have to change climate, and he did. 

We tell you' young man that you cannot ride two horses 
at the same time, especially when they are going in oppo- 
site directions. We often hear young men complaining 
that they cannot get anything to do. Other young men 



40 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

succeed while they fail. They forget, or do not realize the 
fact, when sowing their wild oats, that they will some day 
have to reap them. O, the briars, the thorns, how they 
scratch and tear; yes, they prick to the very quick. That is 
not all — they leave the scars, that will not wash out, or heal 
up. However much a merchant may value smartness or 
business talent in a young man, it all goes for nothing, if 
the young man is not reliable. Integrity first, integrity 
last. That must be your corner-stone if you are building 
up a character that will stand against every temptation, 
every snare, every allurement, and give you a spotless 
reputation, and what money cannot buy. 

He that is violent in the pursuit of pleasure won't mind to turn villain for the 
purchase. ^Marcus Antoniiis. 

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT AT TEN YEARS OF AGE. 

Admiral David G. Farragut tells the story of how he laid 
the foundation of his splendid career, as follows : 

''Would you like to know how I was enabled to serve 
my country? It was all owing to a resolution I formed 
when I was ten years of age. My father was sent down to 
New Orleans with the little navy we then had, to look after 
the treason of Burr. I accompanied him as cabin-boy. I 
had some qualities that I thought made a man of me. I 
could swear like an old salt; could drink as stiff a glass of 
grog as if I had doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like 
a locomotive. I was great at cards, and fond of gambling 
in every shape. At the close of the dinner, one day, my 
father turned everybody out of the cabin, locked the door, 
and said to me : 

'' ' David, what do you mean to be? ' 

'' ' I mean to follow the sea.' 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 41 

'' ' Follow the sea ! Yes, be a poor, miserable, drunken 
sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, 
and die in some fever hospital in a foreign clime.' 

"'No,' I said, Til tread the quarter-deck, and command, 
as you do.' 

'"No, David; no boy ever trod the quarter-deck with 
such principles as you have, and such habits as you exhibit. 
You'll have to change your whole course of life, if you ever 
become a man.' 

" My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by 
the rebuke, and overwhelmed with mortification. ' A poor, 
miserable, drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed 
about the world, and to die in some fever hospital ! That's 
my fate, is it? I'll change my life, and change it at once. 
I will never utter another oath ; I will never drink another 
drop of intoxicating liquors; I will never gamble.' And, as 
God is my witness, I have kept those three vows to this 
hour." 

Congress has just ordered a Twenty Thousand Dol- 
lar monument to the boy who was a hero at ten, and 
greater at that age than ever after ; greater than Alexander 
the Great, who, when he had conquered all known worlds, 
wept because there were no other worlds for him to conquer 
— conquered everything but himself, and died at thirty- 
three. Farragut fought the greatest battle of his life alone, 
single-handed, leaving dead on the field every foe. An ex- 
ample that challenges the world to produce a brighter illus- 
tration, or a greater hero. 

Up on the side of some mountain, or in a lonely glen, 
isolated from civilized society, other heroes have com- 
menced their battles of life unknown to the outside world, 
with nature as their only teacher. David, the psalmist, 



42 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

caught his inspirations while tending his father's sheep; 
one of the greatest astronomers wrought his great problems 
upon the mould-board of the plow, while the oxen were 
resting. What man has done once can be done again. 
Young man, this is a lesson for you to read and learn by- 
heart. 



FORTUNE. 



Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud ; 
Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm, and cloud ; 
Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate. 

Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown ; 
With that wild wheel we go not up or down ; 
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great. 

Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands ; 
Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands ; 
For man is man, and master of his fate. 

Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd ; 
Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud ; 
~\ Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate. 

— Tennyson. 

Every man is the son of his own deeds. — Spanish Proverb. 

A good or bad fortune rests with each individual. It has 
been well said that ''the boy is index to the man;" that 
'' every man is the architect of his own fortune." These trite 
sayings need no proof The history of men of all classes 
in all ages of the world down to the present, bears indis- 
putable evidence of this truth. The boy grows into man- 
hood and the same characteristics that were prominent 
when a boy will show themselves in the man. It becomes 
every young man to heed these injunctions, and shape his 
course early in life, mark out the man he wants to be, and 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 43 

then follow the pattern closely, remembering that he cannot 
go contrary to his plans for years, and then jump into a 
character entirely the opposite. 

We often hear young men say that if their circumstances 
were different they might succeed, but, as it is, there is no 
use of their trying. Everything is against them. What 
did Napoleon say about circumstances ? He asked one of 
his marshals about a movement he had in contemplation, 
and the answer was, if circumstances were favorable it 
might be accomplished. Napoleon replied, " Circumstances ! 
I care nothing about circumstances ; I make circumstances." 
" Only give me a standing-place, and I will lift the world," 
says one. The man of business, of energy, makes his own 
standing-place. Captain Stevens was a man of this sort. 
He never wanted to take hold of a great undertaking until 
everybody else had failed and pronounced it an utter im- 
possibility. Then he was ready to undertake the job. The 
engineers who first undertook to build a dam across the 
Merrimac river at Lawrence, Mass., were swept away with 
their dam, before it was completed, and narrowly escaped 
drowning. Captain Stevens was in his glory. He put in 
the dam and it will stand for centuries. 

WHAT TO DO. 

No question more difficult to answer was ever asked by a 
young man, than : '' What shall I do ? " Probably there is 
not a young man in the United States who has not asked 
himself and his friends the question hundreds of times. It 
is a very perplexing problem to solve. The great majority 
of young men of to-day are like a man lost in a dense 
forest, who in his wanderings comes to where several paths 
meet, crossing each other, diverging to all points of the com- 



44 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

pass, and no guide-board to point out the right path home- 
ward. When they come seriously to think what their Hfe- 
work will be, they are standing at a point where numerous 
avenues converge to a common centre. They look down 
one and up another, and are lost ; and why ? Simply be- 
cause they do not know the greatest of all secrets — one 
which every young man ought to learn very early in life, 
and the ignorance of which has ruined thousands. It is the 
old maxim, " Know thyself." 

Of all the numerous acquaintances a young man may 
have on his list, they are entirely valueless in comparison to 
the individual acquaintance with himself Serious mistakes, 
trouble, and despair over miserable failures, come to many 
because of their being simply ignorant of themselves. To 
every young man we would say that success or failure in a 
great measure hinges on the knowledge you have of your- 
self. You may be a superb scholar, a capital teacher, and 
yet make a miserable failure in merchandising. It is better 
to be a first-class blacksmith, pounding red-hot iron with a 
sledge-hammer — playing the anvil chorus — than a dull 
preacher, vainly trying to pound theology out of a church 
pulpit that is neither there nor in the head. It is better to 
be a wood-sawyer's clerk than a briefless lawyer. If you 
have no conception of colors, of light and shade, portrait- 
painting is not your business. If you have no taste for 
music, and cannot distinguish a concord from a discord, let 
that pass. If you dislike mathematics, surveying would 
not be a pleasant pastime. To be a successful grocer, you 
must be a good taster, and know the goods, or you will be 
"" sold " every day in the year. 

The most difficult thing in life is to know yourself. — Thales. 




Fortune-Telling. — " But who holds the mystic key with which to 
unlock the mysterious future " {Page 45.) 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 45 

FORTUNE-TELLING. 

'' Fortune-tellers " have been found in all ages of the 
world. No nation, no tribe, however low and degraded, that 
has not its fortune-tellers. There seems to be a natural 
craving or desire in the minds of many to have their fortunes 
made known to them faster than an all-wise Providence sees 
fit to reveal. They resort to professionals who advertise 
that they have power to lift the mystic veil — the curtain 
that hides from ordinary mortals the future — and read off 
the events as they are to be acted by each one who may 
seek to know the future. But who holds the mystic key 
with which to unlock the mysterious future ? Where is the 
artist that has the power to throw upon canvas the scenes 
and secrets these years are to unfold, with all the events that 
will be crowded into them ? Who holds the creative power 
to speak into life the men, the women and children unborn 
that are to live, with whom you are to act, to mould and be 
moulded, in all these years ? Who is able to make them 
stand upon the stage and rehearse the parts that each one 
is to play in the great drama of life ? Who can harness the 
elements and bid them perform their part in the grand uni- 
son chorus — one harmonious anthem without a break or 
discord ? Where is the fortune-teller that can accomplish 
all this ? 

THE ASTROLOGERS. 

The astrologer brings his horoscope to bear on the plan- 
etary world, and, by knowing the hour of one's birth, he 
tells what planets were in or out of conjunction, and reads 
your future with unerring certainty. The planets hold all 
secrets with him, and they never fail. But what have the 
planets to do with you or me, or the people of this world ? 



46 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

Has mighty Jupiter the destinies of the human family 
bound up in his archives, to be passed out on call to some 
professed astrologer, some fortune-teller ? Has fiery Mars 
or beautiful Venus a share in these revelations ? What dif- 
ference will it make in your life or mine to know what plan- 
ets were in conjunction, or out of it, at the hour of our birth ? 
What has that to do with your hfe or mine ? Just as much 
as the effect of the new moon, whether it appears over our 
right or left shoulder, and no more. Either way it is simply 
moonshine, and the best evidence of your lunacy, and of 
your being a fit subject for the lunatic asylum. 

It is simply foolishness for you to worship the planets. 
As well worship all the stars, paying your devotions to the 
uncounted millions, and invoke the entire celestial powers, 
for fear some evil star may be left out to ruin your happi- 
ness, upsetting all your plans, present and future. Astron- 
omers will tell you that the revealing of fortunes by the 
stars is but a trick of knaves. If there is any one planet 
that has anything to do with humanity, it is the one from 
which we come — the one to which we must all return. It 
is utterly inconceivable, incomprehensible to any thinking 
mind, how a star, a million times larger than the earth, 
millions upon millions of miles away, sweeping through its 
orbit with a velocity incomprehensible, requiring centuries 
to perform a single revolution, could possibly have anything 
to do with the destinies of the inhabitants of the earth, much 
more that it would have to with a single individual. Would 
it stop on its course to reveal earthly mysteries to some 
astrologer for his profit ? Astronomers tell us of stars so 
far distant that a ray of light flying with the swiftness of 
200,000 miles a second, would require more than 6,000 cen- 
turies to reach our world, and more than 4,000 centuries to 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 47 

perform a single revolution in its orbit. That star may have 
been blotted out more than 5,000 centuries ago, after a ray of 
light, which is now shining, had started on its long journey 
earthward, yet that star may have just as much influence 
over human destiny as the millions upon millions that illu- 
minate the milky way. When you can find an astrologer 
who can or has seated himself upon some projectile, as a 
cannon-ball, propelled by a power that will not permit it to 
slacken its velocity, sweeping through constellation after 
constellation, through fiery comets, showers of shooting- 
stars, meteoric rocks hurled from volcanic abysses of other 
worlds in convulsion, sweeping out of one system into other 
systems, on and on through immeasurable space to reach 
some other remote system unknown to the wisest astrono- 
mers of earth, a journey occupying six to ten thousand cen- 
turies, and having arrived in safety at your guiding star, 
and sends back the telegram of his safe transit and his wel- 
come thereto, and that his journey and mission are a success, 
then by all means accept the revelation. But a myriad of 
centuries have intervened since he started. Where will a 
message reach you ? What will be your address then ? 
You may say that your guiding-star is not so far away. 
Perhaps that may be, but look at the figures. We are told 
that seventy births occur every moment of time, or 100,800 
every twenty-four hours. This is forty millions a year. 
Multiply it by centuries, and solve the problem if you can, 
what star has been assigned to hold your destiny, and is it 
near or far away ? We think after you have well considered 
this stupendous proposition you will write, " redudio ad 
absurduTu!' 

The palmist measures the long and short lines upon the 
palm of the hand, and thereby one's fortune is unfolded to 



48 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

a mathematical certainty. Another reads from pasteboard 
or prepared picture cards, and they become revealers of 
fate. Ground up rags ! O, if they could speak, what tales 
would they not tell ! The settling of the grounds in a coffee- 
cup settles one's hereafter beyond question. If the coffee 
should not be strictly pure, we should fear the result. Prob- 
ably one's fortune would be a little mixed. 

A seventh son is a wonder. His power to penetrate into 
futurity is marvellous ; but when a seventh son of a seventh 
son puts in his appearance, all lesser lights are extinguished. 
His power is augmented according to the rate of geomet- 
rical progression. We have not time or space to compute 
the magnitude of his power. Why, on simple multiplica- 
tion he can see just forty-nine times further into the future 
than a seventh son. How wonderful ! How favored must 
one be who can scan the future and look down so far into 
its hidden secrets ! . 

THE '' SPIRITS." 

They cap the climax. They have been there and seen it 
all. The grand panorama has been unfolded before their 
eyes. They hold the programme. The parts that each 
will act are all printed in letters of gold. Their residence 
in the spirit word has fitted them vastly better than anyone 
who is confined within the bounds of this mundane sphere, 
consequently they must be believed. Spirits won't lie unless 
they are very wicked. Sometimes wicked spirits do shp in 
on the sly, however. This brings to mind the following 
epitaph prepared for a man by the name of Keazle, who had 
expected to climb the '' Golden Stairs " and enter the beau- 
tiful city. The epitaph reveals his sad fate, and is a warning 
to all who consult spirit-rappers, or fortune-tellers : 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 49 

" There was a man who died of late, 
And by angels borne to heaven's gate ; 
While hovering round these lower skies, 
In slipped the devil, like a weasel. 
And down to the pit he kicked old Keazle." 

-rtlE GYPSIES. 

But if all others fail to read the " signs of the times," as 
a last resort, consult the gypsies. Should you have five 
hundred dollars in cash in your pocket, don't fail to make 
the fact known, as great or small events hinge on the con- 
tents of your pocket-book. They can read all the future, 
and see coming events as clear as noon-day, but they can- 
not look inside your pocket-book ! So be sure to make 
known your financial condition, and as they can see just 
when and where to invest, they will satisfy you beyond a 
doubt that it will only take your pile on a margin to make 
sure of ten times the amount. Untold wealth will flow in 
upon you rapidly, only you must allow them to hold the 
money to fool the fickle " goddess of fortune " with. 

That an all-wise Providence should, in his infinite wisdom, 
veil the eyes of his most devoted worshippers, and com- 
municate hidden mysteries to roving, thieving bands of gyp- 
sies — vagabonds of the meanest and lowest class — is too 
preposterous for a moment's consideration. 

Once on a time a lady was walking in a beautiful park, 
enjoying its loveliness, when she was approached by a person 
who proposed to tell her fortune. She very unwisely con- 
sented to allow him to show what power he possessed to 
read the future. Although she was well satisfied with her 
situation, he explained to her what she ought to do to enjoy 
far greater happiness, and how she could rise above her 
present condition, by simply changing her present way of 
—4 



50 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

living, and stand upon a higher plane. She finally decided 
to follow the fortune-teller's advice. It was a terrible mis- 
take. She gained nothing, but lost all her former possess- 
ions, and her happiness. All this for allowing her fortune to 
be told. For full particulars of the sad calamity that befel 
her and her children, see a very old book known as the his- 
tory of the Jews. It can be found in all public libraries. It is 
among the relics of the collection of Jewish antiquities. No 
one can read it without feeling saddened and grieved at the 
untold misery and sorrow it brought to that once happy 
family, simply by allowing a fortune-teller to gain their at- 
tention and accept his advice. 

Let me say here with earnestness that no possible good 
can come to any one, rich or poor, by consulting any for- 
tune-teller, no matter under what name or pretended system 
he may advertise. They are all of one class — stupendous 
humbugs and swindlers. It is absolutely dangerous for 
any young person to consult one of them. Persons too 
lazy to walk, too mean to go to the poor-house, make it a 
profession, because they can find dupes to patronize them. 
A few years ago a fortune-teller and his wife engaged 
rooms in a large hotel at Lawrence, Mass. They issued 
flaming bills, inviting everybody to come to them and have 
their future unfolded. One night the hotel took fire and 
was burned down. The fortune-teller and his wife lost 
everything but their night-clothes, and would have lost 
themselves had they not been taken out of a room by the 
firemen. Surely people who know so much about other 
people's fortunes should be able to read their own. Give 
fortune-tellers a wide berth and you will be the gainer. 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 51 



THE FORTUNE-TELLER. 

A hungry, lean-faced villain, 

A mere anatomy, a mountebank, 

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller, 

A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, 

A living dead man. This pernicious slave, 

Forsooth, look on him as a conjurer; 

And gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse, 

And with no face, as 't were, outfacing me. 

Cries out Twas possessed. 

— Shakspeare. 



READING FICTION. . 

Books, like friends, should be few, and well chosen. — yotneriance. 

No young man should spend his time in reading fiction, 
for it is a wasteland he has no time to lose. Every hour 
he devotes to reading novels is worse than wasted. It fills 
the mind with that which is not true, giving a false coloring 
to real life. It weakens the mental powers instead of devel- 
oping them. Reading that which requires no thought to 
comprehend, is harmful to the mind. If you were training 
for an athlete, you would not use feather pillows for Indian 
clubs, nor india-rubber foot-balls for cannon-balls. Toy 
playthings are not the implements used to develop muscle. 
When one thing is learned, something more difficult must 
be attempted. It is the constant exercise of the muscles 
that develops the power. No one knows what power he 
can develop by daily practice until he tries. 

What is accomplished by physical training can, by the 
same laws, be accomplished by mental discipline. It is de- 
velopment that a young man needs most. Not one person 



52 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

in ten has fully developed his capabilities, his native talent. 
Any man can ruin his system, become helpless as a stone, if 
he chooses so to do. Tie up your arm for six months, and 
you will realize what inaction can accomplish. Let your 
mind have nothing to feed upon year in and out, and you will 
become an imbecile, idiotic. Read flashy novels, exciting 
fiction, night and day, and you will become as simple and 
foolish as the characters portrayed. Is the flavor, the fra- 
grance of a good dinner, better than the dinner itself ? Is 
brass jewelry better than gold? Are mock diamonds bet- 
ter than real diamonds? Is counterfeit money better than 
the genuine? If so, take the counterfeit — read fiction. 
Fiction is all counterfeit, therefore why read it at all, when 
"truth is stranger^than fiction." If froth and foam will de- 
velop muscle, and make a Hercules of a weak body, then 
take froth andffoam for a diet. How long do you think a 
blacksmith's arm would swing the sledge-hammer if he was 
fed on gas? He would probably get as fat as did Job's wild 
asses when they snuffed up the east wind. We have known 
persons to sit down and read fiction all day, and weep over 
the story of some poor unfortunate creature, a victim of 
crueFand heartless treatment in the cold and unsympathiz- 
ing world ; yet when a real living, breathing unfortunate 
knocks in person at the kitchen door, with a sick child in 
her arms, wet and cold, asking for bread, while the tears 
fall upon the pages of fiction, the reader can tell Bridget 
to say'to the^poor woman she has "nothing for her to-day, 
don't let her come in." This is true in fact. It is no fic- 
tion. All^sympathy for real suffering is dead and buried, 
by novel reading. It is the natural fruit. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 53 

The library of Cornell College contains 40,000 volumes, 
and it is said there is not a single book of fiction in the 
number. Why excluded? For the wisest and best of all 
reasons, that they are harmful to any student. 

DIME NOVELS. 

A good book, whether a novel or not, is one that leaves you further on than 
when you took it up. If, when you drop it, it drops you down in the same old 
spot, with no finer outlook, no clearer vision, no stimulated desires for that which 
is better and higher, it is in no sense a good book. — Anna Warner. 

One of the curses of the late war was the multiplication 
of low, trashy, and vile literature. Ten million rattlesnakes 
let loose among the young people, and school children, 
could not have done the harm that has been and is being 
done by these vile nuisances. We have seen small boys 
sitting on curb-stones, on sidewalks, on the floor at the 
post-office, in the alleys on boxes and barrels, anywhere 
that they could find a place to stop and read. School-boys 
would have their pockets filled with dime novels to read in 
school, in church, at home, when their parents were not 
watching them. Well, what's the harm. Young people 
must have something to read. They do not want to sit 
down and read the Bible all the time, or Webster's diction- 
ary. Of course they know they are only stories ! Very 
well. Arsenic is only arsenic ; everybody knows that it is 
poison ; knows it will kill. For all that, there are hundreds 
who are feeding on arsenic to beautify their complexion. 
It is splendid for that purpose, and there is nothing to equal 
it ; it gives the finest complexion for a corpse of anything 
we know of Flowers always show off' to advantage when 
arranged to harmonize with the beautiful complexion of the 
dead. '' What a beautiful corpse, how sweet." Arsenic- 
eating is simply death to the eater. Storing the mind with 



54 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

the contents of dime novels and that class of trash, is worse 
than eating arsenic. It poisons the mind, filling it with that 
which will in the end wreck both mind, body, and soul. 
The direct tendency is downward. In short it is noth- 
ing more or less than '' the criminal's true guide," their 
" first reader." Almost every day in the year you may see 
advertised, " Missing, my boy, Willie Smith," or, " My 
daughter, Mary Smith." City marshals are busy hunting 
up the Willie Smiths, and Tom Joneses, and Mary Smiths, 
and Mary Joneses, who left their homes on the direct road 
to ruin — all poisoned by trashy, yellow-covered literature. 
Hundreds of boys have been lured from their homes to 
become heroes like some of the characters they have read 
about. Yes, the saddest of it all is that, unlike the prodigal 
son, too late they come to themselves, and a father's house 
is then too far away, and in despair they take the next step, 
suicide. Not a day in all the year but that some of these 
unfortunates " pass over the river." You can write it down 
in your diary, that every young person whose name you 
read in the papers, under twenty years of age, as having 
committed suicide, was lead to it by reading dime novels 
and similar publications. Young man, beware ! Know well 
the character of the fountain before you drink. You can 
well take the judgment, the verdict of those who have ana- 
lyzed these fountains, and know the deadly poison they con- 
tain, and the victims that have fallen, without your testing 
them. The way to tell mushrooms from toad-stools is, if 
you eat them and they kill you, they are toad-stools ; if 
they don't kill you they are mushrooms. The safest and 
surest way is not to try the experiment. Then you run no 
risk. So we say as to novels, don't try the experiment sim- 
ply to test the rule. The world has abundance of good and 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 55 

pure literature, suitable for all classes of minds. When you 
once have acquired a taste for the pure, you will loathe the 
impure. We would not throw out Shakspeare and Dickens, 
and that class of writers, who have written true to nature to 
expose great public evils, tearing off the cloak of hypocrisy, 
and bringing before the people knowledge of great wrongs, 
of '' wickedness in high places," that they may be cor- 
rected, ^sop's fables, allegories, and that class of writings, 
are able to hit hard when facts and names cannot be stated. 
One holds up to view crime in all its hideousness to make 
people abhor it, while writers of the other class bring before 
their readers the worst of characters to hold up their wick- 
edness as w^orthy of emulation, and to gloat over their crimes 
as though they were virtues, as though crime in their heroes 
was worthy to be followed. 

Vl^HAT TO READ. 

Read the best books ; lives of distinguished men — of 
statesmen ; books of travel, of the rise and fall of nations, 
biographies, scientific works, on astronomy, etc. Libraries 
are filled with the choicest books, and everyone can select 
something that will not only entertain, but be instructive 
and useful. 

Every young man should take a newspaper or two, and a 
magazine, if he can possibly afford it There are but few 
who cannot invest ten or twelve dollars in papers and books 
each year If all the little needless expenses are cut off", it 
will be found to cost no self-denial, no sacrifice whatever. 
If a young man wishes to keep up with the times, and know 
all the important events that are transpiring daily through- 
out the world, he must take a paper. He will miss oppor- 
tunities which he cannot afford to miss. Newspapers are 



56 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

being introduced into public schools, and, instead of read- 
ing what happened a thousand years ago, the pupils read 
what happened yesterday, and last night, received by tele- 
graph from all principal points, countries, and cities in the 
world. They are reading history, page by page, day by 
day, as the events transpire. A live newspaper is the best 
of histories. One need not wait until he is ten or twenty 
years older to learn what happened yesterday, a week, or a 
month ago. There are people who isolate themselves from 
all society, live in the woods, and think they are very wise^ 
They look at a paper as they would at a mad dog — as 
something terrible ; handle it as they would a rattlesnake — 
with tongs. We meet such persons sometimes. We laugh 
to hear them talk; we cannot help it. We pity them more. 
A man who thinks he can keep up with the times without 
a newspaper, is simply a fool. We pity the children brought 
up in such homes. Do not fail to read the papers. They 
are the best educators. The expense is trifling. There is 
no family but wastes ten times the cost of a good weekly 
paper every year. Thousands of families spend foolishly 
more than the cost of half a dozen good papers. If they 
used one thousandth part of the financial ability that the 
man we know of did to take his family to the circus, they 
could be well supplied with choice reading material. And 
this is — 

HOW THE MAN WENT TO THE CIRCUS. 

Nothing is equal to a circus-bill to stir up that class of 
people who never take a paper. They commence planning 
weeks beforehand to get the change ready when the circus 
man comes around. A family of this kind lives in Texas. 
The man had been to market several times, with butter, 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 57 

eggs, and '' sich," to secure the sum of money required. 
The circus-day arrived, and, with the combined mathemat- 
ical talent of the household, they could not cipher out the 
problem ; the whole tickets and half tickets, and extras for 
reserved seats, the uncertainty of who was over and who 
was under twelve years of age, was too much for them. 
The problem was unsolved. An extra roll of butter, some 
eggs, and a calf-skin were taken along to make sure. Pater 
familias presented himself, with his family, before the ticket- 
vender, to be '' counted up" and "rated." The total cost 
came to just seventy-five cents more than the cash capital 
in hand. Here was a dilemma. Who was to be left out ? 
Not one would pull the straws — draw lots — in a game of 
such magnitude. It was the first circus for six months, and 
nobody could tell when any other would be around, and 
then, this was Barnum's, the "greatest show on earth." 
Curb-stone brokers were not around with funds to loan. A 
desperate move must be made. The band struck up, and 
ravishing strains of music were wafted out from under the 
canvas ; the howling and growling of the animals, and the 
squealing of the monkeys, all came in on the chorus, mak- 
ing the children crazy to be there. Every moment's delay 
was so much precious enjoyment and sight-seeing lost. 
The father was equal to the occasion', and he made the 
quickest time he ever made in his life, down town. He 
rushed into a pawn broker's shop, all out of breath, and 
made known his important business quickly. He must 
have seventy-five cents right then and there. '' Take any- 
thing you please for security, even to the shirt." The 
pawn-broker selected the " boots," and off went the boots ; 
and, with the swiftness of a deer, he was back and standing 
at the tent door, to see his numerous progeny pass in before 



58 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

him. Then, in his bare feet, he .brought up the rear — the 
proudest man in Sherman that day. That was financiering 
that could not be surpassed. Had that man been educated 
to business, he would have made his mark in the world. 
The old saying was well exemplified: "Where there's a 
will there's a way." 

IMPROVING LITERATURE. 

''What do you read? " asked Mr. James T. Field, upon 
a visit to the Boston boy-fiend, Jesse Pomeroy, convicted, 
among other atrocities, for the murder of three children. 
"Mostly one kind," was the reply; "mostly dime novels." 
" And what is the best book you have read ? " " Well," he 
rephed, " I like ' Buffalo Bill ' best. It's full of murders 
and pictures about murders." "And how do you feel after 
reading it? " " O, I feel as if I wanted to go and do the 
same." 

Since writing what we have on fiction, we fortunately 
came across the following editorials, which we have clipped 
from The Congregationalist, published in Boston, Mass., 
one of the best and most reliable papers of the Christian 
press. Read what it says, and see if we have said one word 
too much of the terrible evils resulting from dime novels, 
and all that class of trashy literature : 

" By a singular coincidence the brief editorial in our issue 
of January 28th, on ' What Some Boys Read,' received a 
striking corroboration on the very day the article went to 
our readers. At two o'clock, on the morning of the 28th, 
three runaway boys from Worcester, aged eleven, twelve, 
and thirteen years, were arrested in the streets of New York, 
armed with revolvers and a clasp-knife, and carrying, for 
stores, a can of oysters, smoking and chewing tobacco, fish- 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A R F. 59 

ing-lines and hooks, a song-book, and one or two murderous 
Indian tales. When questioned, it came out that they had 
stolen twelve dollars, and, with the remaining eight and a 
quarter of it, were making their way to Colorado and the 
mountain territories beyond, with bloody intent to exter- 
minate the Indians. Their opportune capture gives the 
gentle savages a longer lease on life, and affords the gov- 
ernment an opportunity still to do them justice. But what of 
the boys — their reading, the molding influences thus early 
mastering them, their probable future? And what, by the 
way of prevention or remedy, is to be done with men who 
so abuse the press, to the perversion and poisoning of such 
unripe minds ? Must this vile corrupting process go on 
forever?" 

We also take, from the same paper, the following, which 
appeared as editorial on February 25th, last, in relation to 
the same subject : 

" Two more illustrations of the natural outcome of the 
' Jack Sheppard ' sort of reading, so freely furnished for 
boys, have come to light within a week, in the vicinity of 
New York. At Milton, a little way up the Hudson, three 
boys, aged respectively thirteen, eleven, and ten years, got 
access to the closed summer home of a New York lady, 
stole whatever took their fancy, and revelled for a week on 
her stores of fruits, preserves, etc. Not content with this, 
they showed their manly independence by destroying the 
mirrors, curtains, and such other property as they could 
not use. 

" At the same time another and larger gang, some of them 
not over ten years old, under the leadership of a ' big 
boy ' captain, a little older, were ' working ' the stores and 



60 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

dwellings of Jersey City Heights in regular burglar style; 
the little fellows being thrust through the fanlight, or a 
broken pane, and passing out the plunder, which was taken 
to a thief's den near by, kept by an imitation ' Fagin,' who 
disposed of it, and gave the young scamps an occasional 
dime. But the boys are of reputable — some of them of 
wealthy — families, and evidently plied this secret trade by 
night, rather for the romance than the profit of it/' 

School Superintendent Seaver, of Boston, says that the 
practice of reading trashy, sensational novels is a much 
more grave and rapidly spreading evil than is generally 
supposed. The pupils of the public schools draw from the 
public library a literature that wastes their time and injures 
their mental tone. It is proposed that the trustees of the 
library shall take some action toward remedying the evil. 

FIGHTING THE INDIANS. 

"We have, almost every week, painful illustrations of the 
shocking influence of the sensational reading which chil- 
dren obtain from the street news-stands and otherwise. 
Last week two little boys, thirteen and eleven years of age, 
residing in this city, started ' for the west, to fight the In- 
dians.' They had been reading 'dime novels,' and were 
full of the matter. The oldest boy had stolen ^90 from his 
mother, and they had provided themselves with pistols, 
knives, a wooden bow-gun, a dark-lantern, a 'belt to hang 
scalps on,' and cooking utensils with which to dress and 
cook buffalo and bear meat. They first went to Wolfe- 
boro and Center Harbor, New Hampshire, to practice 
shooting. An attempt of the younger boy to steal some of 
the funds caused a rupture in the partnership. They had 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 61 

returned as far as Lynn, and the police of the city were in- 
formed of the robbery by the offended boy. The result of 
the examination secured the return of both boys to their 
homes. 

" Parents fear to have their children choose bad compan- 
ions, but bad books are worse. You cannot cure the evil 
by simply denouncing the books or punishing the boy. 
You must create a better taste by reading to him, and with 
him, and with great painstaking awakening an appetite for 
wholesome literature; then all the flashy papers and books 
resting on street news-stands will be no temptation to him." 
— Zion's Herald (Boston). 

Mr. James Sawin, principal of one of the public schools 
of Providence, Rhode Island, tried an interesting experi- 
ment a short time ago. His pupils were much addicted to 
the reading of the vicious "dime-novel" literature that is so 
prevalent. One afternoon he lectured them on the subject, 
and read to them a portion of the old Homeric tale of ''The 
Golden Fleece." The children followed him with rapt at- 
tention. Later in the day he began to read to them from 
an ordinary boys' "flash" story, without, however, telling 
them what it was. They soon began to manifest signs of 
impatience, which at last could not be ignored. When Mr. 
Sawin asked them what was the matter, they answered 
that the story he was reading was "no good," and request- 
ed him to finish "The Golden Fleece." The result has 
been that an excellent school library has been established, 
which contains an abundance of good, healthy literature for 
boys and girls ; and it is well patronized. This is a prac- 
tical way of reaching the evil of vicious juvenile literature, 
and there is no reason why many other schools should not 
adopt it. 



62 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

"One of the most insidious evils of the day, and conse- 
quently one of the worst and most difficult to deal with, is the 
rapid increase of impure literature. Our book-stores, news- 
stands, and, to our shame be it said, even our private libra- 
ries and parlor tables, are piled high with this sort of stuff, 
from the flashy story papers and filthy chroniclers of crime 
to the works of popular novelists, who gild their poisonous 
pellets with the graces of rhetoric and the flowers of fancy. 
The upas tree overshadows all society, and from its venom- 
ous branches there is a constant drip, drip, drip, of acid 
poison, vitiating all life. The boys and girls of the land are 
feeding on this literature to their everlasting detriment." 
— Boston Post. 

On this same subject of the importance of what boys 
read, the Chicago Inter- Ocean, one of the soundest papers 
of the west, calling attention to the crime of permitting a 
boy to acquire a taste for vile literature, and of course for 
the vileness which such literature portrays, says : 

*' The arrest of four boys in Milwaukee, upon numerous 
charges of incendiarism, reveals the fact that they had 'a 
pirate's den,' kept on hand a large supply of cigarettes, 
chewing-tobacco, etc., and swore in members with a 'cast- 
iron oath.' The boys were mostly members of respectable 
families, but were instructed in such depravity by vicious 
literature. One of the boys said defiantly, 'Oh, I'm one of 
the bad boys, I am, and don't you forget it.' Another boy 
of most respeftable parentage declared he ' wanted to look 
like a tough,' and, when arrested, he had on his person a 
knife, a cowboy story, a plug of tobacco, and four cigars. 

" These were no gamins of the street, but boys who reg- 
ularly attended the public schools and stood well in their 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 63 

classes. Their parents are among the best people of Mil- 
waukee, and one of them is the son of a major-general. 
The lesson of all this is not for Milwaukee more than for 
Chicago, but for every city and village in the land. Fath- 
ers and mothers who laugh at the witticisms of ' The Bad 
Boy,' and like literature, may sooner or later have to shed 
bitter tears and endure the most intense mortification. 
The power of a bad book or a vicious story upon the minds 
of the young is not easily over-estimated. 

" It is the devil's own method of entering the homes of 
innocence and honesty, and leading the boys and girls to 
vice and ruin. The father and mother in these days who, 
when there are floods of good books and magazines for the 
young, of the most beautiful and interesting character; 
allow these vicious and pernicious publications in the home, 
incur a fearful responsibility. The trouble seems to be 
that too many fathers enjoy the reading themselves, and 
are forestalled in making a protest to the children." 

The Illustrated Christian Weekly, of March 6th, 1880, 
also says : 

'' Parents and guardians who neglect their sacred duty of 
dire6ling the intelleftual as well as material diet of their 
children, are having frequent and painful reminders of the 
dangers they incur. The recent reports of young burglars, 
highwaymen, and suicides, have shocked the community, 
but in every case the fact has appeared that the reading 
of dime novels and boys' papers has incited them to their 
crimes. Reckless dealers in poison are held to strict account 
by the law. Why should these wilful corrupters of youthful 
imagination be exempt from the responsibility of their hei- 
nous business?" 



64 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

At a recent dedication of a branch of the Boston public 
library, in Dorchester, Mass., William T. Adams (Oliver 
Optic) said : 

'* When I began to write stories for the young, I had a 
distinct purpose in my mind. How well I remember the 
books I read unknown to mv parents, when I was a boy ! 
They were ' The Three Spaniards,* ' Alonzo and Melissa,' 
' The Mysteries of Udolpho,' ' Rinaldo Rinaldini,' ' Free- 
mantle, the Privateersman,' and similar works, not often 
found at the present time on the shelves of booksellers, 
though, I am sorry to sav, their places have been filled with 
books hardly less pernicious. The hero of these stories 
was a pirate, a highwayman, a smuggler, or a bandit. He 
was painted in glowing colors, and, in admiring his boldness, 
my sympathies zvere with this outlaw and outcast of society. 
These books were bad, very bad, because they brought the 
reader in sympathy with evil and wicked men. * * * 
I ^Pin willing to admit that I have sometifnes been more sen- 
sational than I now wish I had been!' 

SAD END OF ONE YOUNG MAN RUINED BY BAD 
BOOKS. 

'' A very sad death occurred in the penitentiary yesterday. 
All deaths are sad, but of all deaths the death of a broken 
heart is the saddest. P. E. Sullivan, alias William Delaney, 
a young man of twenty-three years, one of the train-rob- 
bers recently sentenced to seventy years in the Arkansas 
penitentiary, was the victim of a broken heart. Several 
days'^ago he became gloomy, and going to Dr. Lenow, 
prison physician, complained of being sick. Upon exami- 
nation the physician discovered that the man was not suf- 
fering from any perceptible disease, but that his pulse was 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A R 7. 65 

one hundred and forty. He was ordered to the hospital, 
where every possible care was given him. He revived after 
a time, but every one could see despair written on his 
countenance. He entered the prison cheerfully, and lightly 
spoke of the long term of his sentence, but after a while a 
letter came. When he read the lines his spirit sank. Tears 
told of a misery that ink could not express. He went 
again to his bed. 

"'The shadows are gathering fast, and night is oppress- 
ing me with its darkness,' he said yesterday to some one 
standing by. ' One crime, and then death in a penitentiary. 
My old father, who has preached the Gospel for years, 
who many and many a time clasped his hands above my 
head and prayed, has been humbled in his old age. And 
my mother ! if I could only hear her voice. But walls and 
law are between us. I am as one who is dead. She could 
come to me, but I cannot go to her.' His thoughts wan- 
dered. At times he seemed to be at church, listening to his 
father preaching; and then he seemed to be playing with 
his sisters. He smiled and laughed softly. ' Ah ! ' he 
would say, 'your brother never forgets you.' Suddenly 
his face grew dark, and, waving his hands wildly, he began 
to mutter broken sentences. 'Seizing the bridle-rein, he 
sprang upon his antagonist's horse and dashed away.' 
' He's reading one of those wild books that we used to steal 
away and devour,' said one of the dying man's companions 
in crime. 'Halt! he exclaimed, drawing a revolver and 
leveling it at the head of young Horace,' continued the suf- 
ferer. ' Slowly and sadly they left the church, and walked 
along the well worn path to the rude grave of Lawrence. 
Standing near the stone placed there by the Indian, Casper 
and his fair companion' — and he muttered incoherently, 
—5 



66 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 

the sentence dying away with a deep groan. Suddenly he 
raised himself, looked intently toward the door, and slowly 
sank back, dead." — Little Rock ^Arkansas) Gazette. 

GOOD BOOKS TO READ. 

" God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant and the dead, 
and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages." — Channing. 

Would you be delighted to hear the roar of cannon, the 
clash of armies, the shouts of victory, the groans of the 
dying ; to wade through rivers of human blood ; to scale 
the Alps ; to follow a defeated army in its retreat from Mos- 
cow, in the deep snows of a terrible winter, harrassed by an 
army foaming with rage, maddened over their city in ashes, 
rendering thousands homeless ; to see the corpses of fifteen 
thousand soldiers, of an army of forty thousand men, lining 
the way, the snow their only winding-sheet, and their grave ! 
If you have a taste for scenes of this class, read " Abbott's 
Napoleon." So vividly will all the scenes come before you, 
that your blood will almost curdle in your veins. 

Do you wish to see Old Mexico, and revel in the halls of 
the Montezumas ? Prescott will conduct you safely there 
and back. You may prefer a cooler climate, or a trip to the 
north pole ; Dr. Kane will welcome you to a journey with 
him, and take you where eternal silence reigns supreme, 
and night hangs her sable curtain for two long months in 
the year, and it is twilight for nearly four months additional ; 
to feast on polar bear steak and drink train oil by the 
gallon. 

Perhaps you would prefer an aerial voyage, and to soar 
away from earthly delights? Prof. Mitchell awaits your 
coming. The chariot is ready for a trip to the remotest 
star. He will gladly guide you to other worlds and sys- 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 67 

terns, through the unexplored regions of infinite space, on 
a voyage requiring centuries to make the tour. If you are 
timid and have not the time to spare for so grand a journey, 
an underground trip may suit you better ; Prof Winchell 
will condu6l you down to and through earth's mysterious 
chambers, and read to you of the ages past, when life was 
unknown ; of the intervening centuries before man ap- 
peared on the earth; or, Hugh Miller will be delighted to 
sit down with you, with his little hammer in hand, to crack 
the rocks and read up their testimony, and he will also tell 
you what he knows of the old red sandstone. 

Africa may have a charm in its wealth, its diamond fields. 
You may prefer to join an exploring expedition to deter- 
mine the source of the Nile. If so, Murigo Park, Cameron, 
Baker, Livingstone, and Stanley are ready to give you their 
experience in that dark land, over which the shadow of ig- 
norance and superstition hangs like a pall. 

The Holy Land has been carefully studied, explored, and 
surveyed by the best classic scholars of the age. Jerusalem 
and its environs have been described most graphically. 
Robinson, Smith, Thompson, and others, will give you their 
experience and travels. A run down to Egypt and a look 
at the pyramids may not be uninteresting. The problem as 
to the science of astronomy having been well understood 
at the time of their building, six thousand years before the 
Christian era, is still unsolved. Layard will tell you of the 
wonders he has exhumed from Ninevah and Babylon, two 
of the most remarkable cities of the old world, with walls 
one hundred feet high and eighty feet thick ; with fifteen 
hundred towers, two hundred feet high, at intervals along 
the wall. 



68 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

When you have become interested in, and famihar with, 
the works pubHshed in relation to the world and its inhab- 
itants, we think you will not feed on novels of the '' dime " 
order. 



HEALTH. 



Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it. — Shakspeare. 

O, blessed health ! thou art above all gold and treasure ; 'tis thou who en- 
largest the soul, and openest all power to receive instruction and to relish virtue. 
He that has thee, has little more to wish for ; but he that is so wretched as to 
want thee, wants everything with thee. — Sterne. 

No other blessing in this life is of so great value as good 
health. A young man possessed of a robust frame, a strong 
constitution, free from any hei editary disease, has a fortune 
that he cannot afford to be careless or indifferent about. It 
is a prize that cannoi; be estimated by any human arith- 
metic, or valued by gold piled high enough on the scales 
to make an equivalent. It is a priceless treasure. No 
wealth, no rank, no position can equal it in value. All the 
united and combined treasures of the world cannot com- 
pare with the value of good health. 

It is of the utmost importance that every one should 
rightfully estimate its worth, that they may exercise the 
most diligent watchfulness, that it may not slip from them, 
or be prematurely injured or lost. Every fountain of pleas- 
ure, every enjoyment in life, is marred when there is pain. 

To be free from pain for a single day, some would give 
thousands of dollars. Millions of money are spent annually 
by invalids hunting for the fountain of eternal youth ; 
sparing no expense or time traveling up and down the 



KENT 'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 69 

earth, hoping to find a dimate that will bring back health. 
No one can be successfiil in active business life if he has a 
broken-down constitution, that is continually demanding 
his care and attention. It interrupts all plans of business 
or pleasure, causing great disappointment when least pre- 
pared to meet it. Only those who have once enjoyed per- 
fect health and lost it, know its value. 

GOOD LIVING. 

Good living consists in eating good, wholesome food, well 
cooked, three times a day. Remember, we eat not for the 
simple pleasure of eating, but to nourish the system, to repair 
the injury, loss, and waste that are going on continually. 
The blood, the brains, the bones, the muscles call for fresh 
supplies to keep them satisfied, healthy, hearty, strong. 
Each one requires a special diet, and will not accept of any 
substitute. If it is not supplied, it suffers, and other parts 
are compelled to submit to loss. Oat-meal is classed as one 
of the best articles of food for health, and superior for devel- 
oping brain-power. It has been, and is to-day, the standard 
article of food with the Scotch, and where is the nation that 
has produced greater men, intellectually, than Scotland? 
Not less than one thousand barrels of oat-meal are shipped 
from Iowa every day in the year to Scotland. That which 
produces good blood and a healthy constitution is what 
every one should eat. If properly cooked, slowly eaten, 
and thoroughly masticated and mixed with the saliva, one 
never need have the dyspepsia or any other ills. 

But, if you are too lazy to" take care of yourself, and will 
indulge your appetite, you can be assured that you will 
have all the ills flesh is heir to, gratis. 



70 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

CLEANLINESS. 

Let the mind's sweetness have its operation upon the body, clothes, and hab- 
itation. — George Herbert. 

Even from the body's purity the mind receives a secret, sympathetic aid. 

— Thompson. 

Nothing conduces so much to good heahh as cleanHness. 
Nothing but a free use of soap and water will keep one's 
person in a healthy condition. Every person should bathe 
as often as once a week, and in warm weather several times 
a week. It is absolutely necessary that the pores be kept^ 
open, thereby increasing the vigor of the system and for- 
tifying it against disease. We always prefer a good bath, 
in the coldest of weather, if we are to ride all day in a 
carriage. 

A warm bath, followed by a dash of cold water, with 
thorough rubbing with crash towels, until a warm glow is 
felt all over, followed by a few gymnastic exercises, and the 
system returns to its normal state, and the rigor of a long, 
cold ride is greatly relieved, without the least danger of 
takiug cold. Some fifty ladies and gentlemen took baths 
at the Hot Springs, Ark., in water from 90^ to 100° Fahren- 
heit, on a very cold day, when the ground was frozen. 
After it, we all went on our journey, and not one suffered 
in the least from the bath. A lazy person is sure to take 
cold, simply because he is too lazy to rub himself and bring 
the blood to the surface. If your feet are inclined to per- 
spire, you cannot be too careful about keeping them clean, 
and not wearing socks without changing often. Nothing is 
more offensive than the perspiration absorbed into the sock, 
and then warmed up to a fever heat. We have had persons 
to dine with us, the odor of whose feet was sickening. 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 71 

THE BEST MEDICINE. 

A man who pours drugs, of which he knows little, into a body of which he 
knows less. — Voltaire. 

The best remedy for a young man is plenty of water, in- 
ternally and externally. We never take any physic. There 
is no necessity for it. We can tell you a remedy worth a 
thousand dollars for you to know. When you are in need 
of a cathartic, or are bilious, take a hot bath, as hot as you 
can endure it, followed by a dash of cold water, when there 
should be work, and lively at that. Rub yourself until 
your flesh burns, and be sure to rub well. One application 
will do you more good than a car-load of pills. If you 
have not strength for the work, get some one to help you. 
A bath once a week will be all that is necessary. If the 
bowels and liver become dormant, friction upon the surface 
will restore them to a healthy action ; medicine will not do 
it. Remember that in taking medicine the dose must be 
increased a little every time. A tumbler of water every 
morning, an hour before eating, will keep your bowels reg- 
ulated. Fruit is good, and lemons are excellent ; but no 
sugar — nothing but the lemon -juice and water. If you 
cannot sleep at night, get up and take a towel and rub your- 
self well, and you will drop to sleep immediately. The 
philosophy of it is simply this — that certain parts of the 
body are over-tired, and, by rubbing, the blood is put in 
a healthy circulation throughout the entire system. When 
all parts are waked up by its flow, all will rest harmon- 
iously, and sleep is the natural result. Water is the best 
medicine ; it is also the cheapest. If all would use plenty 
of water they would have little use for medicine or do6lors. 
To keep the pores open, frequent bathing is necessary. 
When a person is tired and weary, he stops work and lies 



72 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

down to rest. That is just what the stomach and organs of 
digestion require. They become tired by over-work, and 
need rest, and must have it, or there will be damages to pay 
for. One-half of the sickness is caused by over-work or 
over-eating, or by eating indigestible food. The crowding 
down ill-masticated food, without the proper mixing of the 
saliva, and washing it down with cold ice-water, or iced 
milk and tea, thus reducing the temperature of the stomach 
twenty or thirty degrees below where digestion begins its 
process of converting into chyme — to blood — is a danger- 
ous proceeding. Late suppers, with food as difficult to 
digest as pig-lead, will ruin the strongest constitution. The 
whole system becomes gorged and breaks down, and the 
wheels stop. Then comes the forcing process, and stimu- 
lants — bitters, beer, whisky, etc. — are freely imbibed, driv- 
ing on the poor, tired organs to greater efforts. 

The horseback rider, to increase the speed of his animal, 
applies the whip and spur, urging the horse until he drops 
dead in his tracks. Drinking bitters and whisky is the whip 
and spur to the stomach. The horse that is constantly 
ridden at the top of his speed, under the cruel goading of 
whip and spur, becomes accustomed to the forcing process, 
and will, after awhile, not move without them. We have 
all seen horses with great scars and welts where the whip 
and spurs have lacerated the flesh. If some of the old 
whisky-soakers could once see the insides of their stom- 
achs, they would find them all covered with patches, scabs, 
and sores — the delicate covering destroyed. When the 
stomach gets into that state it loses its natural power to 
crave food, and nothing but an artificial stimulant will 
restore the appetite. The mouth tastes bad on rising in the 
morning, so the morning dram must be had before break- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 73 

fast. It becomes a disease. The true way is to let the 
stomach rest ; refrain from eating as much as possible. The 
system will return to its normal condition of itself 

Thousands, who have the money and time, visit Saratoga 
Springs to recuperate. What do they do there ? Well, the 
first thing is to get up early in the morning and go to the 
springs, and drink one to five glasses of water. Then, exer- 
cising an hour before they take breakfast. The great point 
of emulation is to see who can drink the most water. Now, 
if the same parties would drink good, cold water every 
morning at home, they would be just as well off, and save at 
least a trip to Saratoga and five dollars a day expense. The 
same people would not dare to drink a tumblerful of cold 
water at home in the morning ; it would be dreadful. That 
there is great virtue in drinking Saratoga water early in the 
morning we have the fullest assurance, and also that any- 
where else there is nothing equal to drinking good water an 
hour before breakfast. Water is a tonic. It tones up the 
stomach, cools down the fever heat, and passes off' through 
the kidneys readily. Hot water is also good for those 
whose stomachs cannot bear cold water. 

BEWARE OF THE DOCTORS. 

** He who can plant courage in the human soul is the best physician." 

" I feel it not ! " — " Then take it every hour." 
" It makes me worse! " — "Why, then it shows its power." 
" I fear to die ! " — " Let not your spirits sink, 
You're always safe while you believe and drink." 

" Can the patient pay ? 
And will he swallow draughts until his dying day? " 

If you take proper care of yourself, are temperate in all 
things, and do not become exposed to sudden changes of 
weather without dressing accordingly, you will never need 



74 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

any medicine, unless you meet with some accident, in 
which case only a surgeon can treat you. But remember 
that all medicine is poison, or it would have no effect. The 
most deadly poisons are given as remedies by all leading 
physicians. 

A few years ago one Dr. E. J. Fountain conceived he had 
discovered the matchless sanative for all human ills, and 
was writing up its virtues. Dr. F. lectured before an east- 
ern medical society, dilating upon the great medicinal vir- 
tues of his new discovery. A physician in New Jersey 
heard the lecture and became a disciple. He gave his first 
patient the prescribed dose. The second dose was the 
last, and resulted in the death of the patient. The physi- 
cian was prosecuted for manslaughter, or mal-pra6fice. 
He wrote to Dr. Fountain, asking him to furnish him with 
all the facts in connection with his practice; for all the in- 
formation possible. This was just what Dr. Fountain de- 
sired, and he was too glad to do so. It would bring him at 
once before the public, and his reputation would be estab- 
lished as one of the leading physicians of the country. He 
secured the reputation. To be a better witness, Dr. Foun- 
tain took about six doses in one to prove it was a safe rem- 
edy. He stepped into the store of a well-known druggist 
and requested him to weigh out the specified amount, 
which was one-half ounce of chlorate of potassa. It was 
weighed with the most scrupulous care — that there should 
be no mistake as to the exact quantity — and the doctor 
took it in the presence of the druggist, and bade him to 
make a record of the fact. The doctor started homeward, 
and meeting a brother physician told him what he had 
taken. The physician remarked to him that he didn't 
''look any the better for it." Arriving at his home he went 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 75 

immediately to bed, and for more than a week suffered un- 
told agonies. Although he knew what he had taken, and 
his brother physicians also knew, yet they couldn't save 
him, and he died a martyr to his own ignorance; and thus 
before the impending trial came on, Dr. Fountain had 
breathed his last. The prosecution had the best of it — a 
dead witness. " Dead men tell no tales." One dead witness 
to them was worth a score of living ones. It is unusual, 
we believe, however, for a dead witness to give the best tes- 
timony, as it certainly did in this case. 

Dr. Fountain was no " quack." He «^vas a regular grad- 
uate of an eastern medical college, and had a diploma. He 
was a thorough-bred old-school practitioner, and a leading 
member of the Scott County, Iowa, Medical Society. The 
friends of many he had treated, laid away in the cemetery, 
had no very pleasant reflections over his demise. The un- 
happy thought would come, '' Have they been made vi6lims 
of similar experiments ? " 

You may be the subje6l for some do6lor to experiment 
with. There are some human butchers for the sublime 
interest and devotion they have to science, who delight 
to cut and slash when and wherever they have the op- 
portunity. We are reminded of the surgeon in the army, 
who cut the wrong leg off the wrong man, and when the 
hospital Stewart reminded him of the fact, replied it was a 
matter of no consequence, as it would probably have been 
''shot off" in the next battle, anyway. Very consoling to 
the sick soldier when he returned to consciousness. We 
suppose that science demands the slaughter of a few sub- 
jects annually. 

The newspapers frequently chronicle some '' Remarkable 
Surgical Feat," "Triumph of Science," "Patient doing as 



76 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

well as can be expe6led." We have no doubt about it. It 
is all true so far as it goes ; but, to be true as to the results, 
a "P. S." should be added : " Patient survived the operation 
about two hours," '' Obituary notice will appear in our next 
issue," " Fault of nurse," no doubt. More than one physi- 
cian has had to pay " hush-money " to keep friends from 
prosecuting for inhuman butchery. 

We do not wish to be understood as conveying the im- 
pression that all who belong to the medical faculty are ex- 
perimenters, and delight in cutting to pieces their patients 
for the purpose of gaining a great reputation for surgical 
skill ; far from it. We know personally some noble Chris- 
tian gentlemen who honor the profession, and are good 
physicians. They have the fullest sympathy for their 
patients and suffering humanity at large. It is a noble pro- 
fession, and for that reason thousands have assumed the 
title of " M. D." — and that is why the country is so over- 
run with ''quacks," gulling the people, and kilHng more 
than they can cure. If you ^think you are ill, and need 
advice, consult a local physician, not a traveling mounte- 
bank, who is here to-day and is gone to-morrow. Skilled 
physicians do not need to travel to gain pra6lice. It is 
merit that wins. 

To be well and to remain well you must exercise constant 
daily care of the house you live in, or it will go to decay 
long before there is any need of it. If you have a healthy 
body, and take proper care of it, there is no reason why it 
should wear out in twenty -five or thirty years, or why it 
should not last a century, and run down gradually, like an 
old clock. Proper food and exercise should keep it in run- 
ning order at least seventy-five or eighty years. Sidney 
Bartlett, Esq., of Boston, made a strong and vigorous appeal 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. "J^J 

before the United States supreme bench, at Washington, 
D. C, a few days ago, and he is over eighty-one years old. 
Our grandfather hved to be ninety-three years old, and at 
ninety he mowed in the hay-field. 

"Avoid in youth luxuriant diet. 
Restrain the passion's lawless riot ; 
Devoted to domestic quiet, 

Be wisely gay ; 
So shall ye, spite of age's fiat, 

Resist decay." 

THE CONNECTICUT DOCTOR'S REMEDY. 

A Conne6licut doctor won a great reputation as a very 
successful physician. It was a mystery to everybody why 
he had so much better success than other do6lors. He was 
frequently importuned to reveal the secret, but always re- 
fused to tell any one. At last, however, he told them that 
his principal medicines were bread pills, and his syrups 
sweetened water. For years, some persons had to have 
one of his pills every night, or they could not sleep. But 
when they knew the secret, although cured, they were so 
indignant that he was obliged to leave the place. Not one 
of them would afterwards employ him. 

invalid's RETREAT. 

Years ago there was a physician residing near Boston, 
Mass., who made a specialty of treating invalids — ladies 
who were not suffering from any special disease, but who 
simply needed exercise. He had a beautiful carriage, in 
which he would invite them to take seats. Then the way 
he would drive would be a caution. The carriage was 
without springs — set right down to the axles. The way 
they hopped around was very amusing. They would cry 
out, '' Oh, doctor, doctor, you are killing me ; do stop ; I 



78 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

shall die." It was the only way he could do them any 
good. They would not take exercise, and that was all they 
needed, and when they took his prescription they got the 
exercise. 

GETTING UP IN THE MORNING. 

Young men must arise in the morning if they " mean 
business." To get up early one must retire early. If you 
are awake until one or two o'clock in the morning, you 
cannot expect to rise early. You will be late to breakfast, 
late to business, and too late to succeed. You will miss the 
best chances and the best bargains. Take exercise out of 
doors — plenty of it. If your business is in-doors, you must 
take exercise, and you cannot take too much. Your system 
demands and must have it, or suffer the consequences. 
Every one ought to be out of bed an hour, at least, before 
breakfast, and half of that time out of doors. A walk, a 
run, a jump ; go through with some gymnastic exercise ; 
swing the arms backward and forward over the head ; strike 
^ out, strike back, any way, every way, to wake the dormant 
muscles and send the blood tingling through the extremities 
into a healthful circulation. Last, but not least, you must 
have lung-power. One-half of the lung-power of the peo- 
ple is not brought into action. " Too lazy to breathe," is a 
saying which is too true. Tying up the lungs is like tying 
up your knees in splints, and undertaking to walk or work. 
Many are hampering their lungs, destroying them, by tight- 
lacing. 

HOW TO DEVELOP LUNG-POWER. 

Place a pipe-stem in the mouth and hold it fast. Inhale 
through the nostrils until your lungs are filled to the utmost 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 79 

capacity, then ''blow off" through the pipe-stem. Repeat 
it several times before breakfast, in pure air — not the poi- 
soned atmosphere of sleeping-rooms, or fetid air, cooked in 
the sitting-room, full of fine dust. Hundreds of model 
house-keepers must have fresh water to drink and to cook 
with, and will not use water that has been boiled once, but 
pour it off to have it fresh, yet never think of throwing open 
the windows and doojs to let out the cooked air, which has 
all the goodness baked out of it, all the oxygen burned out 
of it, by hot-air furnaces, coal stoves, gas, and oil lamps — 
air that has been breathed over and over again by a dozen 
persons through the day and night before, for weeks even, 
robbed of all its life-giving elixir, and loaded down with the 
deadliest of gases. 

Every window and door should be thrown wide open the 
coldest morning in the year, to let off the poisons and to let 
in the life-giving, pure oxygen, fresh from heaven. Instead 
of doing this, they cork up every door and window air- 
tight, to keep in what should go out and to keep out what 
should come in. To ward off diphtheria, scarlet- fever, pneu- 
monia, and that dreaded of all diseases, consumption, fresh 
air must be given access, or the doctor will come in, fol- 
lowed by the undertaker. If you want to see these gentle- 
men, cork up your houses air-tight, and don't allow any 
doors or windows to open. They will respond to the call 
you will be sure to make. Poor children, sleeping under 
doors for bed-spreads, and where the wind plays waltzes 
and quicksteps with the ill-fitting windows all the night 
long, are hearty and strong, while the children of the 
wealthy are pale, puny, pulseless, and lifeless. Without 
pure air life is enfeebled, developing a feeble constitution, 
ready to break down under the least effort. If they grow 
up, it is only to suffer for the sins of thdr parents. 



80 KENT'S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

Church sextons often have but httle sense in this respect. 
Instead of throwing open windows and letting off the foul 
air, they undertake to heat it over and over again. No 
wonder some ministers are dull, and sleepers are numerous. 
It is enough to put to sleep seven times ^' seven sleepers." 

But we have digressed from our starting-point. The great 
secret of building up a strong and healthy system is the 
proper development of the lungs. Deep breathing, way 
down — to your boots. Look at the blacksmith's bellows, 
watch the long sweep of the lever, every inch of space in 
the bellows filled to its utmost expansion. If you were to 
study elocution, we think the first lesson would be how to 
breathe. Half of the people do not know how to breathe. 
Great singers and elocutionists understand it. If they did 
not they would break down in a month. The muscles of 
the chest must be brought into play and disciplined. Proper 
use of the vocal organs is necessary for health. Good 
singers and teachers of elocution increase their corporeal 
system greatly and become portly. Persons have increased 
the girth around the chest five inches in six months pra6lice, 
by simply inhaling fresh air as we have already suggested, 
and '' blowing off"" through a pipe-stem. 

MINISTERS vs. LAWYERS. 

A minister stoops over to read his manuscript ; the mus- 
cles and chords of the vocal organs are compelled to work 
under a brake — unnaturally. The tones are muffled, gut- 
teral, or squeaky. The air from the lungs is loaded with 
the rankest of poisons, and is thrown against the windpipe, 
and the delicate coating is scorched and burnt by the hot, 
poisonous gas, at a temperature of one hundred degrees. 
Sore throat is the natural, inevitable result of such unnat- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 81 

ural breathing. The minister breaks down, while the law- 
yer, standing up, harangues a jury ten hours a day for ten 
days and grows fat in flesh and fee. The stump orator 
speaks a hundred days in all kinds of weather, in-doors and 
out, four to six hours a day. Actors and elocutionists fol- 
low their profession for years — ^,for a life-time — and do not 
break down. Professor Churchill, of Andover, Massachu- 
setts, the best elocutionist in the country, is quite portly. 
We knew him when a young man. He was slim, and not 
strong and hearty — net weight now two hundred and fif- 
teen pounds avoirdupois. He has a deep, rich voice, under 
perfect control. Mrs. Scott-Siddons has given readings for 
years, has traveled in all countries and climes, reading in 
ill-ventilated rooms, hot and cold, under gas-lights or tallow 
candles, yet she keeps her voice in nice trim. The great 
vocalists, singing thirty or forty weeks in the year, main- 
tain their voices remarkably. Why is it that ministers break 
down speaking two hours a week, one hour at a time ? The 
whole secret is in not knowing how to control their breath- 
ing, and to use their vocal organs properly. Singing or 
speaking in a perfectly natural manner, as nature designed 
the organs for use, is the most health -giving exercise known. 
Persons who are consumptive, with weak lungs and femi- 
nine voices, have been cured, and become healthy, hearty, 
and rugged. It is an exploded idea that singing and speak- 
ing conduce to lung diseases and consumption. The entire 
system depends on the lung-power. If that is weak, the 
system is weak ; and if that is strong, a healthy system is 
found. Remember and practice daily the rules for the de- 
velopment of lung-power ; it is the working capital of the 
system, and success in any undertaking depends upon hav- 
ing a perfect machine to do the work. Your body is the 
—6 



82 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

machine, and your lungs are the most prominent and all- 
important mechanism of the system. When they fail to do 
their work well, the machine fails of doing good work. 

Physical exercise, in some systematic manner, is a duty 
we owe not merely to our bodies, but to our whole nature. 
It will vitalize the blood, quicken the energies, give firmness 
to the nerves, and lay a foundation upon which we may 
build a wholesome and successful life. 

ADVICE. 

" Take the open air, 

The more you take the better ; 
Follow Nature's laws 

To the very letter. 
Let the doctors go 

To the Bay of Biscay ; 
Let alone the gin, 

The brandy and the whisky. 
Freely exercise, 

Keep your spirits cheerful ; 
Let no dread of sickness 

Make you ever fearful. 
Eat the simplest food, 

Drink the pure, cold water. 
Then you will be well, 

Or, at least, you ought ery 

— Anonymous. 

I think you might dispense with half your doctors, if you would only consult 
Doctor Sun more, and be more under treatment of these great hydropathic doc- 
tors — the clouds. — Beecher. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 83 

HABITS. 

The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt till they are too strong to 
be broken. — yohnson. 

Habit, with its iron sinews, clasps and leads us day by day. — Lamartine. 

The repeating of certain movements, or doing certain acts 
over and over again an indefinite number of times, forms a 
habit. If we change night into day, we cannot sleep at 
night. If we accustom ourselves to eating at certain inter- 
vals, we shall feel the cravings of appetite at such intervals. 
The man who takes his glass of " bitters " regularly, becomes 
miserable if he is debarred from his accustomed glass. He 
has formed a habit that will be a prompter every time the 
clock strikes the hour. At first it has no force and no con- 
trol over him, but, often repeated, it accumulates power. 
One link is easily forged in the chain of habit, and by and 
by the chain has many links, and it coils around him noise- 
lessly, and, before he is aware of it, his feet are fast in the 
fetters. To break away from it is almost an impossibility. 
The habit of drink takes hold of its victim with a death- 
like grip. Like the boa-constrictor, it gradually coils itself 
around its victim, growing tighter at every round, and hold- 
ing him in a vice-like grasp, 

A HORRIBLE DEATH. 

A few months ago, in a foreign city, an exhibition was 
given by a snake-charmer. One part of the performance . 
was to allow the snake to coil around the charmer's body. 
The snake coiled around as usual, and then began to tighten 
up the coils. The man screamed in agony ; the spe6iators 
clapped their hands and cheered, thinking it was but a part 
of the sport ; but, when the poor man's tongue was forced 



84 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

out of his mouth, and his eyeballs from their sockets, and 
the dull cracking of his bones was heard as they were being 
broken and crushed, then did they realize that it was the 
death-grip of the snake. Once too often had the charmer 
fooled with his snakeship. Too late he realized the power 
of his pet and his terrible heartlessness — his relentless fury 
— when called into a6lion. 

We remember well a man who came to our city poor, but 
who, by hard work and careful saving of his earnings, ac- 
quired considerable property. He had a good situation — 
one that he could have held for many years at a good sal- 
ary. The habit of drink had been formed, and after awhile 
he began to feel its power. He tried to break off. For a 
short time he succeeded, but only to be more firmly bound 
down to it. He tried to break its bonds. He begged friends 
to go along with him, who did not drink, when he knew he 
had no power to withstand the temptation alone. " If I go 
with those fellows they will drink me to death." When at 
last he found that no earthly power could save him, he wept 
like a child. Too late he realized that he was in the coils 
of the demon that would never slacken its hold when once 
within its grasp ; on the other hand, it was constantly tight- 
ening up its coils for the final conflict, which is sure to come 
at last. Every bad habit is a foe that is armed to the very 
teeth, to conquer and overcome which requires a power 
more than human. 

FILTHY HABITS. 

Filthy habits conduce to a great amount of sickness. No 
one should sleep in an article of clothing worn through the 
day. We have heard of persons who would put on a shirt 
and never take it off till worn out. Another habit is not to 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 85 

respond to the calls of nature daily ; in plain language, 
they are too lazy to visit a privy. But nature is not to be 
cheated. The faeces are taken up by the system, and thus 
poison the blood. The blood revolts and throws it upon 
the skin ; and, when you see a person's face all covered with 
little festering sores, full of matter, you can mark it down 
that that person has some low, filthy, and disgusting habits. 
If you want the piles you can have them. I know of noth- 
ing more disgusting and sickening than to be brought in 
contact with one ol these people. The aroma of skunks 
would be a relief, and relished better. Would that they 
could smell themselves for once. A young lady was re- 
cently made deathly sick by a young man of this class, who 
breathed in her face at a party. She turned from him and 
went home quite ill, and was sick with fever for weeks in 
consequence. Some people never use a tooth-brush. The 
food that lodges between the teeth remains there, to go 
through a state of decomposition, contaminating the breath, 
and reminding sensitive persons of the odor of a swill-cart, 
which is identically one and the same. Persons who bolt 
down their food before thoroughly masticating it, will have 
a very disagreeable and offensive breath. We sometimes 
are seated in church beside a person whose clothing is 
loaded down and reeking with a stench worse than a 
slaughter-house, if that is possible. Clothing, as well as 
the person, must be ventilated, purified by exposure to the 
air and sunlight — the greatest of all deodorizers. Some 
house-keepers throw open their beds and windows in the 
morning ; others make up the beds early in the day, all 
reeking with the sickly emanations from the body, to keep 
it in, to become a deadly poison to the sleeper. 



S6 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

GOOD MANNERS. 

There is no policy like politeness ; and a good manner is the thing in the 
world either to get a good name or to supply the want of it. — Bulwer Lytton. 

Civility costs nothing and buys everything. — Mary IVortly Montague. 

Pleasant address, respectful attention to every one, rich 
or poor, high or low, is what wins. A sour, grufif, surly 
answer to questions asked, never pays and never will. A 
pleasant '' Yes, sir," or ''No, sir," goes further than most 
young men think. Afting out the boor may be a natural 
trait of chara6ler, but it don't win. 

At the old Lindell House, in St. Louis, a gentleman out 
of health stopped a few weeks. The table-girl who waited 
on him took special pains to get what would be relished 
best by the sick man. Most waiters avoid invalids and do 
not care to wait on them. She had a sympathetic nature, 
and it showed itself whenever there was an opportunity. 
The sick man left the hotel, and about a year after there 
came a draft to the table -girl for three thousand dollars. 
The man was dead, but her name was not forgotten in the 
will. It pays to do well. It pays to be civil. 

A young lad, a boot-black in the streets of New York, 
obtained a position in a bank by his pleasant '' Yes, sir," 
'' No, sir," to everybody. It made him president of the 
bank. '' I don't know," '' Don't care," '' None of my busi- 
ness," never pays. Many a boy has been lifted out of pov- 
erty to affluence, in the end, by his gentlemanly manners in 
his boyhood days. 

DRESS. 

The style and neatness of one's attire have much to do 
with one's success in any respectable calling. A young man 
who is careless of his personal appearance — wearing ill- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 87 

fitting garments, boots slouchy, and run down at the heels, 
a hat as ill-becoming, stands a very poor chance of securing 
a first-class situation. It is the dress that, in a degree, is an 
index of the man — i. e., makes the first impression on a 
stranger. It is not the quality, neither is it the costliness 
of the suit, but the neatness and care, that is noticed in the 
personal attire at the very approach. No merchant will 
hire a clerk who is devoid of taste and of that pride which 
permits him to negle6l his personal appearance. It is a faft, 
that the world at large judges of a person much by his 
dress, and not by his accomplishments. If a man has made 
his fortune and retired from business, and prefers to dress 
like a boor, to the disgust of his friends and in violation of 
the rules of etiquette, of course he has a legal right to do 
so, but no gentleman will ignore the good-will of the com- 
munity in which he resides by wearing outlandish or slov- 
enly apparel. 

No young man can afford to negleft his wardrobe. If he 
prefers to go carelessly attired, swaggering along, he would 
better go to some coal-mine under ground, and stay there 
forever, for he never can secure a first-class situation above. 

Every one should dress according to his business, and 
should be proud to wear the insignia of his trade or pro- 
fession. A brick-layer or a hod-carrier will not look well 
in a minister's garb, neither will a minister look well in a 
hod-carrier's suit. There is an appropriateness in dressing 
to suit the place you occupy. A dandy in broadcloth, kid 
gloves, and stove-pipe hat wouldn't stand much of a chance 
to engage himself to a farmer ; neither would a farmer's boy 
be eligible to a situation in a fashionable dry-goods store, 
dressed in his field suit. Although dress plays an important 
part in aiding a young man to secure a situation, yet it 



88 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

requires superior qualifications to be able to hold one after 
it is obtained. It is economy for every young man to dress 
well ; it is a recommendation to good society ; it is a step- 
ping-stone to a higher position, which means, financially, a 
better salary. It pays to dress well. 



HOW TO DESERVE SUCCESS. 

POLITENESS. 

True politeness is perfe6l ease and freedom. It simply consists in treating 
others just as you love to be treated yourself. — Chesterfield. 
" True politeness is the poor man's capital." 

No accomplishment will atone for the want of genuine 
politeness. Affable and courteous manners always win. 
Many a young man has won his way to success by uniform 
politeness to everybody Snobbishness doesn't pay, and 
never will. This dropping on one's knees to aristocracy, 
and falling back on one's dignity to ordinary people, is an 
exhibition of the absolute want of genuine politeness. It is 
a virtue that young men should cultivate constantly, for 
they never can tell whose friends they may or may not 
insult if they disregard this injunction. 

TWO WAYS OF DOING THE SAME THING. 

A young man entered a bank as teller, on a small salary. 
His gentlemanly manners and true politeness made him 
very popular. His salary was increased from year to year. 
A rival bank desired his services, at a higher salary, and he 
changed counters when his year was up. A third bank also 
coveted his services at a still higher salary, with an offer of 
''three thousand dollars a year." True merit is always at 
a premium. 



KE]\r>S NE W COMMENT A BY. 89 

Worth makes the man, the want of it the fellow. — Pope. 

Another young man stood behind the same counter where 
the first young man began his career. He put on many 
airs. It was mortifying to his aristocratic notions to be 
obHged to wait on ordinary customers. A civil answer was 
not always given. Nearly every one was treated with the 
most haughty and heartless indifiference. When a check 
was presented for payment, the currency would be thrown 
out over the counter, as though it was infected with the 
small-pox ; and, with an air that spoke louder than words, 
to the recipient, " Take it and clear out." After a time 
the bank dire6lors have numerous complaints made to 
them ; depositors withdraw their balances and place them 
elsewhere. The bank is losing money by a teller who acts 
the boor, and finally a polite intimation is given the young 
man to hand in his resignation, and that it will be accepted 
without notice. The morning papers announce his resig- 
nation, and that he intends to go into business for himself, 
'' out west." Young men of that stamp are just fitted to be 
muleteers — to drive jackasses and dwell with the brutes all 
their days in some underground mine. No matter how 
honest or capable a young man may be, or how rapidly he 
could expedite the business of a bank-teller — for all these 
requisites are absolutely necessary — yet, he may be lack- 
ing the most essential qualification to make his services of 
any value to any banking institution — the lack of genuine 
politeness. 

Success can never be won where a young man is above 
his business, and treats with the utmost contempt those with 
whom he must have daily business transactions. Monied 
men are not beggars or town paupers, and will not do busi- 
ness with an uncivil bank official, be he teller or president. 



90 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

DID IT PAY? 

A Dr. Wallace, formerly a confederate soldier, who re- 
cently died, bequeathed to a daughter of Mr. Thomas H. 
Allen, of Lynchburg, Virginia, ten thousand dollars, for 
kindness and hospitality extended to him when ill, by her 
father and mother. 

THIRTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. 

" Some thirty years ago, Mr. Green, an amiable English- 
man, seeing a rather shabby old man looking for a seat in 
church, opened his pew door, beckoned to him, and placed 
him in a comfortable corner, with prayer and hymn books. 
The old gentleman, who carefully noted the name in these 
latter, expressed his thanks warmly at the close of the ser- 
vices. Time had effaced the incident from Mr. Green's 
recollection, when he one day received an intimation that, 
by the death of a gentleman named Wilkinson, he had 
become entitled to thirty-five thousand dollars a year. 
Mr. Wilkinson was a solitary old man, without relatives. 
Green's act prepossessed him in his favor ; he inquired 
about him, and found that he bore the highest character." — 
Dublin Times. 

PROFITABLE POLITENESS. 

The Boston Traveler, in commenting on the prevalence 
of rudeness, tells the following incident that happened some 
years ago : 

'^ There was a plainly-dressed, elderly lady, who was a 
frequent customer at the then leading dry-goods house in 
Boston. No one in the store knew her, even by name. All 
the clerks but one avoided her, and gave their attention to 



KENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 91 

those who were better dressed and more pretentious. The 
exception was a young man, who had a conscientious regard 
for duty and system. He never left another customer to 
wait on the lady, but when at liberty he waited on her with 
as much attention as if she had been a princess. 

''This continued a year or two, till the young man be- 
came of age. One morning the lady approached the young 
man, when the following conversation took place : 

*'Lady — 'Young man, do you wish to go into business 
for yourself ? ' 

"'Yes, ma'am,' he replied; 'but I have neither money, 
credit, nor friends.' 

"'Well,' continued the lady, *you go and select a good 
situation, ask what the rent is, and report to me' — handing 
the young man her address. 

"The young man found a splendid location and a good 
store, but the landlord required security, which he could 
not give. Mindful of the lady's request, he forthwith went 
to her and reported. 

"'Well,' she replied, 'you go and tell Mr. that I 

will be responsible.' 

"He went, and the landlord, or agent, was much sur- 
prised, but the bargain was closed. 

'*The next day the lady again called, to ascertain the 
result. The young man told her, but added : 

"'What am I to do for goods? No one will trust me.' 

" ' You may go and see Mr. , and Mr. , and 

Mr. , and tell them to call on me.' 

" He did so, and his store was soon stocked with the best 
in the market. There are many in this city who remember 
the circumstances and the man. He died many years ago, 



92 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

and left a fortune of three million dollars. So much for 
politeness ; so much for treating" one's elders with the defer- 
ence due to age, in whatever garb they are clothed." 

HOTEL CLERK. 

Thirty years ago there was a clerk at a Fitchburg, Mass- 
achusetts, hotel, named Easterbrook, who, for pohteness, 
probably never had his equal. At least, in our travel in 
eighteen states of the Union, we never met one. He was a 
perfect gentleman to every guest, rich or poor, in broad- 
cloth or homespun. The moment you stepped into the 
office, he was ready to greet you with a most cordial wel- 
come. An only brother could not have done more. All 
wants were anticipated with such a genuine brotherly kind- 
ness that one felt he was in the house of his best friend. At 
the depot, on the arrival of trains, his quiet and gentle- 
manly approach to a stranger was so attractive that one was 
sure to accept a seat in his coach. No catching hold of 
your satchel, and importuning you with all the fierceness of 
a starving hyena. No howling, no swearing at runners 
of other hotels. He was the perfeft gentleman everywhere 
and all the time. When he secured a customer he had a 
life-lease on him. It paid the hotel proprietors, and paid its 
guests with genuine satisfaftion, that they had been well 
cared for, and, if they never traveled that way again, they 
advertised the house wherever they journeyed. 

PLEASE YOUR EMPLOYERS. 

" He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find 
the flaw when he may have forgotten the cause." 

The reason so many fail of success is because they are 
not willing to give their employers all their time. They 



KENT S NEW OMMENTARY. 93 

will cut off at both ends and out of the middle. Always 
tardy; always in haste to quit ten or fifteen minutes before 
time. A young man who cheats his employer out of his 
rights, cheats himself in the end. If there is an easy job to 
be done, he never will get it. If- a man is to be sent out 
five hundred or a thousand miles to set up a machine, or on 
a collefting tour, he will not be the man to go. If a fore- 
man is wanted, he never will be recommended for a better 
position, and it serves him right. He is not worthy of any 
place when he cheats his employer every day in the year, 
and every time he draws his wages takes more than he has 
earned. Nothing but a selfish interest controls his entire 
being. 

It is the duty, and it is for the interest of every man, to 
devote his entire energies to the interests of his employer. 
Why, we would stand on one foot, or on our head, if nec- 
essary, to advance the interests of our employer. When we 
could not do it, we would quit. This whining and growling 
all the time is mean — contemptible. It exhibits a low, self- 
ish, ill-bred disposition. They are a class who claim that 
the world owes them a living — and, pray, for what? Bal- 
ance your accounts ; show your figures. If the world owes 
you anything more than a decent burial, our mathematical 
computations are wrong. A young man of that stamp 
would see his employer's property go to destruction — burn 
up — before he would go ten steps out of the way to save 
it. A man of this disposition cannot but feel mean all the 
time. Work goes hard with him. A man that doesn't like 
the business of his employer is an unprofitable man to have 
at any price. It is the out-cropping of communism, only 
waiting for reinforcements to usurp power, to disregard law 
and order, and to break down every safeguard of society. 



94 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

To enjoy anything you must fall in love with it, else it 
will be irksome, tedious. It wears upon the system like a 
machine without oil. A happy, jovial disposition makes 
hard work easy, light, and devoid of friction. 

MAKE YOUR EMPLOYER'S BUSINESS YOURS. 

To win a reputation that is worth more than money, every 
young man should make himself thoroughly acquainted 
with his employer's business. He should know it in all its 
details, and take as much interest in it as though it was his 
own ; devote his whole time and talents to help make the 
business pay every dollar possible. You may have a hard 
place. Your employer may not fully appreciate the value 
of your services, but you are not a slave. There are other 
places to fill. Others will see your devotion to your em- 
ployer, and will seek to obtain your services at a greatly 
advanced salary. Unrewarded talent will not long remain 
uncompensated. It cannot be concealed. You might as 
well hold your hat before your eyes and think you had shut 
out the noon-day sun. Every hour of faithful devotion to 
your employer's business is making capital for you, and is 
better than money deposited in banks. 

A young man never knows who may be watching him. 
Business men have keen sight. They recognize talent 
wherever it is seen. Changes are constantly going on. A 
salesman retires ; another must fill the vacancy. Who shall 
it be? A hundred — five hundred — apply, and only one is 
wanted. The proprietors have beenwatching a young man 
in some other establishment for six months. They have 
had his name in a memorandum for that length of time, 
and, as occasion gave them opportunity, they have watched 
his business tact and the hold he has on customers. They 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 95 

employ others to '' sound him." His habits are looked 
into, to know where and how he spends his evenings ; where 
he is on Sundays, and how about his vacations ; are they 
frequent ; and last, but not least, who are his associates ? 
These are all read up. The records are compared and they 
show — First, he is prompt, always on hand. Second, his 
employer's business is made his own. Third, customers 
will not buy of any one else if they can help it. Fourth, his 
habits are correct ; doesn't smoke, chew, or drink ; never 
was seen at a theatre ; doesn't play cards or billiards ; is 
a6live in the Young Men's Christian Association ; record, 
A No. I, extra. It is voted to secure his services if he can 
be honorably released from his present situation. Salary is 
a secondary consideration. The book-keeper is instru6led 
to drop him a note, asking him to call at the counting-room 
at eight p. m., which reads as follows : 

"A.B. & Co., 

" Importers of Silks, English, French, and German Cloths, 

" Pearl Street. 

"Boston, December ist, 1879. 
" Mr. Henry Granderson — Dear Sir : — If convenient, we should be pleased 
to have j-ou call after business hours at our counting-room — say eight p. m. 
Slri6tly confidential. Yours, 

"A. B. & Co." 

Promptly at the hour named, Mr. Granderson is at the 
counting-room of A. B. & Co. He is told that their head 
salesman will leave on the first of January, 1880, and they 
need a man to fill his place. That, although they have 
hundreds of applicants, they are satisfied he is the man they 
want, and, if he is situated so that he can make the change 
without compromising himself, they are ready to engage 
him. As far as salary is concerned, they will make it satis- 
fa6lory to him. Mr. G. rephes that his year will be up in a 
few days, and he has not said anything to his firm or they 



96 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

to him on the subject ; he will confer with them at once, and 
see them again. Three days later Mr G. is at A. B. & Co.'s 
office and informs them that his firm has proposed to double 
his salary, which has been five thousand dollars for the last 
year, rather than to have him leave. A. B. & Co. say, 
'' Please call to-morrow morning at ten o'clock." Promptly 
at the moment Mr. G. is on hand. He is asked to step into 
the private office. A. B. & Co. say that they have con- 
cluded to make him a proposition to become one of the 
firm. He may consider his interest to be ten thousand dol- 
lars paid-up capital, and if he wishes to add to that sum he 
can do so. Mr. G.'s name is added to the firm. This may 
look a little overdrawn, but it is all literally true ; nothing 
but the names are fictitious. 

PACIFIC MILLS, LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS. 

When this large and wealthy corporation was ready to 
commence business, at a directors' meeting, the question 
came up as to where to find an agent to take charge of the 
mills, and it was suggested that each one should take special 
pains to find a suitable man for the place. At the next 
meeting every one of the direftors had found a man w^ho 
was just fitted for the place, and one of the most remarkable 
coincidences was, that the man that each one felt specially 
proud to name, all the others had the same identical man. 
So it was made unanimous. The next question was, could 
he be secured? He was proprietor of a small mill, and was 
well situated. A committee was delegated to engage him 
on the best terms possible, but to secure him. They went to 
his place and asked him to name his terms. He did so. To 
pay so much for his mill — a round price, ten thousand dol- 
lars cash bonus over the price for the mill, and a salary of 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 97 

ten thousand dollars a year. They closed the contraft at 
his terms at once, and for ten years he drew his salary of 
ten thousand dollars a year. Were it necessary, and had 
we space, we could multiply similar cases. There are hun- 
dreds of men who are receiving a better salary than the 
president of the United States receives. There are a great 
many men who receive a thousand dollars a month ; yes, 
and there are millions who do not receive over fifteen dol- 
lars a month and board. Why the difference ? 

PUT ON THE APPEARANCE OF BUSINESS. 

There is nothing like being always busy, doing some- 
thing. Sitting down and waiting for customers is no way to 
build up a trade. People prefer to go into a store where 
the proprietor is so full of activity that it seems almost im- 
possible for him to stop to wait on customers. It gives an 
impression of a live man and plenty to do. No one cares 
to go the second time where all is as still as a graveyard, 
and the proprietor looking as if his last day had come, and 
moving about with a face as long as a yard-stick, with a 
voice as doleful as though he had been singing, '' Hark, 
from the Tombs," for a month. To a lady who has the 
least horror of ghosts, such condu6l would make her stop 
as short as possible, and never go there again. 

We knew a young physician who opened an office in a 
country village, and every day he would drive out ten or 
fifteen miles into the country at a rapid rate, and when he 
came back to the village his horse would be white with 
foam. Some days he would drive two horses — one in the 
forenoon, and a fresh one in the afternoon. Everybody 
said, '' What a big pra6lice our new do6lor has." There 
was not a farmer within a radius of twenty miles who didn't 
—7 



98 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

know the new doftor. The result was that he did get a 
large practice, but for thejirst three months he didn't have a 
patient. It was perfe6lly right for him to learn all about the 
country and the people, so as to be prepared to answer 
calls. He put on the appearance of business, and he secured 
what he sought for. 

A few years ago a young man, a mason by trade, went to 
Boston to seek employment. For two weeks he did noth- 
ing but walk the streets, dressed in his best Sunday suit, and 
failed to find any one who wanted his services. He con- 
cluded to change his procedure, and to put on the ''appear- 
ance of business." So he bought a pail and a whitewash 
brush, and put on his working suit — well ornamented with 
whitewash — and started out early the next morning to ad- 
vertise his profession as a ''whitener." He went into the 
most fashionable portion of the city, the residences of the 
merchant princes, and along the streets at a rapid pace, as 
though he had a big job on his hands and was in a great 
hurry to be at the work. He had not proceeded far before 
a lady on the opposite side of the street espied him, and, 
raising her window, called to him to come across, as she 
wanted to speak to him. He crossed over and she asked 
him if he would stop and whiten some ceilings for her. 
'' No, I am too busy to-day, but I will come to-morrow," he 
replied. She told him to come, and away he went on his 
advertising tramp for the day. Before night he had engaged 
all the work he wanted ; and from that day until he made 
enough to retire from business, he didn't have to tramp the 
streets of Boston for work. 

Young man, there is nothing like '' putting on the ap- 
pearance of business " — that is, if you mean business. The 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 99 

public always want to employ the dusj^ man. They invari- 
ably have suspicions of a man who has nothing to do. And 
well they may. 

don't be above your business. 

Some young" men fail because they have so exalted no- 
tions as to what they think is proper or becoming. This 
class, when clerks, are too proud to carry a bundle of any 
kind, and must hire an express or porter to carry a yard of 
muslin. 

A young man purchased a turkey in Quincy market, 
Boston, and looked for a boy to carry it home for him. 
Seeing no boy near, he called out to an elderly gentleman 
standing near by, '' Here, old man," said he, '' take this 
turkey home for me." The old man took the turkey under 
his arm and followed the young man to his residence, re- 
ceived a quarter for his service, and, as he turned to leave, 
said, '' When you have any more errands to do, send for 
Billy Grey." If the young man had carried the turkey 
home himself it would have tasted all the better, for the old 
man was none other than Billy Grey himself, the richest 
man in Boston. 

The late Amos Lawrence, one of Boston's most successful 
merchants — a millionaire — when a clerk in a dry goods 
store, sold a bill of goods, promising to have them delivered 
in Charlestown by twelve o'clock m The porter, who was 
to take them over, failing to return as soon as expected, 
young Lawrence loaded the goods on a wheelbarrow and 
trundled them over the long bridge through the streets 
thronged with ladies and gentlemen, and had them there 



100 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

on time. Not one clerk in a thousand would have been 
seen following a wheelbarrow, even if their fortunes were at 
stake. 

A snobbish young man, on his way to dinner, stopped at 
a grocery store, purchased a little tin box of ground mus- 
tard — less than a pound in weight — and asked to have it 
sent home, although he was going direflly there. A large 
four-horse truck (tandem) was loaded with the box of 
mustard, with as much show as if it had been a hogshead 
of molasses. The driver drove up to the front door of the 
young man's residence, backed his truck up to the side- 
walk, and rolled off the little box of mustard, rung the 
door-bell, called the young gentleman to the door, deliv- 
ered the mustard, and charged thirty-seven and a half cents 
for the job. The display in front of his residence did not 
add to his happiness in the least, for his loving neighbors 
enjoyed the show better than a first-class circus parade. 
It did not require any mustard-poultice to warm up his 
wounded pride that day. It was a good lesson to his snob- 
bish, aristocratic notions. These instances are but samples 
of thousands of exhibitions of mock aristocracy occurring 
every day in the year. 

CHOICE OF BOARDING-HOUSES. 

" The whole of our life depends upon the persons with whom we live familiarly.'''' 

We gain nothing by being with such as ourselves. We encourage one another 

in mediocrity. I am always longing to be with men more excellent than myself. 

— Lamb. 

If men wish to be held in esteem, they must associate with those only who are 
estimable. — Bruyere. 

Choose the company of your superiors, whenever you can have it ; that is right 
and true pride. — Chesterfield. 

Select the best private family accessible, where culture 
and refinement are prized above show, where the choicest 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 101 

books, and papers, and music are thought more of than 
theatres, parties, and gossip. Better be at the foot of the 
table than at the head, every time. Development comes by 
conta6l with superior minds — not inferior. One elevates — 
exalts; the other degenerates — letting down one's self to a 
lower level. Do not, to save a dollar a week, take board at 
a second-class house. You can't afford it. Economize in 
everything else, rather than to associate with a class devoid 
of all ambition for improvement. The society of refined 
young ladies will improve any young man. It will be a 
good school to those who may not have had the advantages 
of a liberal education. The case of a young man who took 
his intended home to his father's house for tea, and, when 
they were seated at the table, said to her: " Take hold and 
help yourself; we don't have much manners here," was an 
example of boarding-house etiquette generally. 

A young man cannot be too particular about the society 
he moves in. The old saying still holds good, that ''a man 
is known by the company he keeps." Many a young man 
has lost golden opportunities, unknown to himself, simply 
by being seen in questionable company. '' Show me his 
friends, his associates, and I will tell the chara6ler of a 
young man whose voice I have never heard," is true almost 
to the letter. 

It is in the home in which a young man lives that he 
acquires his habits of home-life, as well as his manner of 
thinking and conducting himself in his relations to others. 
No doubt but it would be better for any young man who has 
the least desire to make the most of himself and his oppor- 
tunities, to pay, if need be, two prices for his board, to be 
in a family where the best of social relations existed, rather 



102 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

than to be deprived of the refining and elevating influences 
found in every good home. It is impossible to estimate in 
money the benefit it would be to such a young man. 



HOW TO INSURE SUCCESS. 

PLUCK. 

The world belongs to the energetic. — Emerson. 

Success makes success, as money makes money. — Chamfort. 

The secret of success in life is for a man to be ready for his opportunity when 
it comes. — Disraeli. 

™Pluck is omnipotent. You may just as well be contented 
and satisfied to remain where you are, as to expe6l to meet 
with any degree of success in any business you may engage 
in, unless you possess an abundance of this essential ele- 
ment. This is a fast age. Everything goes with lightning 
rapidity. Time and distance are annihilated, and, to win 
success, one must be on time, or he will be ruled out. Some 
people, however, are so far in the rear that they would not 
be missed if they should drop out of existence at any time. 
It is an astonishing as well as an indisputable faft, that a 
great majority of the people of our own country never make 
any mark in the world. They live and die as the beasts — 
like so many sheep and cattle. The only force they exert, 
distinguishing one over another, is animal. So many " horse 
power," weighed by the same scale as a steam-engine or a 
turbine-wheel is weighed to find its power. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 103 

A SERMON IN A PARAGRAPH. 

President Porter, of Yale, gave the following advice to 
the students of that institution, the other day : 

'' Young men, you are the archite6ls of your own fortunes. 
Rely on your own strength of body and soul. Take for 
your star, self-reliance. Inscribe on your banner, ' Luck is 
a fool; Pluck is a hero.' Don't take too much advice — 
keep at your helm and steer your own ship, and remember 
that the great art of commanding is to take a fair share of 
the work. Think well of yourself. Strike out. Assume 
your own position. Put potatoes in a cart over a rough 
road, and the small ones go to the bottom. Rise above the 
envious and jealous. Fire above the mark you intend to 
hit. Energy, invincible determination, with a right motive, 
are the levers that move the world. Don't drink. Don't 
chew. Don't smoke. Don't swear. Don't deceive. Don't 
marry until you can support a wife. Be in earnest. Be 
self-reliant. Be generous. Be civil. Read the papers. 
Advertise your business. Make money and do good with 
it. Love your God and fellow-men. Love truth and virtue. 
Love your country and obey its laws." 

WAITING FOR THE ELEVATOR. 

Some young men are devoid of the least ambition to work 
for their own advancement. They may have some fancied 
aspirations, perhaps, to occupy respe6lable positions in the 
community in which they live ; wishing for some prominent 
place, a little above their associates, while they do not exer- 
cise the least ambition to work their way there. It reminds 
us of the steam elevators used in all first-class hotels, by 
which the guests are carried to their rooms. They have 



104 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

nothing to do but to step in and take a seat in a little, ele- 
gantly furnished room, and in a few seconds they are up 
at the top story. No long flight of winding stair-cases to 
climb, when tired and weary. It is one of the greatest lux- 
uries of modern hotel life. In a great rush, sometimes one 
has to wait a few moments for the elevator before he can 
ascend. Thousands of young men to-day are waiting for 
an elevator — one that will carry them right up to the high- 
est pinnacle of their lofty ambition. In vain they may wait 
for it. If they ever reach a respectable standing in any 
community, it will be by the old way of climbing up step 
by step. No patent elevator has yet been invented, or ever 
will be, that will lift one up any other way than by his own 
individual efforts. Every one must construct his own eleva- 
tor, and run it by his own inherent motive power — elevate 
himself — or he will never rise to any position worthy of the 
noble powers with which nature has endowed him. If you 
are born a prince of royal blood, in due time, if you live, 
you will reach the throne, wear the crown, and sway the 
sceptre over loyal subjefts, bowing to your nod; but that 
will not happen on this continent. My advice to every 
young man is : spend no time in tracing back your pedi- 
gree, as it is a great waste of time, for, if of royal lineage, 
you will not be lost sight of, for ''blood will tell." You will 
be found out, and in due time elevated to the throne you 
were born to sit upon. So, if you are satisfied that such is 
not your destiny, do not wait for the elevator — it never will 
come down to carry you up. Your only chance is the old 
stair-case, and the sooner you satisfy yourself of the faft 
and commence climbing step by step, the better — making 
every step count one step higher than the last, and, if you 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 105 

can pass your competitors on the up-grade, do it. Emula- 
tion is a noble quality of the soul, and should be exercised 
continually. 

A word of caution: Do not become too greatly elated 
and lose your balance. Be sure of your footing, go strong, 
placing every step you take firmly on the treads. "'Although 
the stair-case is very old, it will be found just as firm and 
secure as it was when the first traveler passed up. Do not 
wait, then, for the elevator. We often hear of young men 
telling of their future prospers — laying back on their oars 
at ease; building air-castles on the wings of the wind, to 
vanish with the breath that inflates them. They are waiting 
for an elevator. 

A young man says, ''My father is a candidate for sheriff", 
and, if elected, I am to be his deputy." He is waiting for 
the elevator. Another says, ''When my old uncle is dead, 
I shall come into possession of a fortune — enough to keep 
me without any business to bother my head about." He is 
only waiting for his elevator. Thousands of young men 
have in store for themselves "great expeftations," of fortune 
or position — all are waiting for the elevator. Just where 
or how it is to come they have not the faintest conception. 
They anticipate that some motive power will be brought 
into requisition, which will just lift them right up to the 
very places they have selected as congenial to their tastes 
and ambition — a class that is always hanging around the 
foot of the stair-cases, waiting for the elevator that never 
comes down to take them up. 

BURNED HIS SHIP — BLEW UP THE BRIDGE. 

We read of the general who, after landing his troops in 
the enemy's country, blew up his ships, so that his men 



106 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, 

mig-ht know there was no going back with him ; it was fight 
or die. So it was with the general who burned the ^bridges 
behind him. When an army knows all retreat is cut off, it 
will fight. Like the man teaching a swimming-school, he 
threw his boys overboard and told them to ''strike out," 
and they had to do so or drown. In battle the- raw recruits 
are often put in the fi'ont and the old veterans in the rear, 
to prevent a hasty retreat or a panic. If every young man 
was harnessed where he could not get away, and "must 
pump or drown," he might dazzle the world by his brilliant 
achievements. 

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. 

The May of life only blooms once. — Schiller. 

" Despair and postponement are cowardice and defeat. Men are born to suc- 
ceed, not to fail." 

This putting off until to-morrow what should be done 
to-day, is but putting off the main chance, to be defeated at 
last. 

A general in the British army, who was asked when he 
would be ready to sail for India, repHed, "Now;" and he 
won the title of " Marshal Forward." General Grant won 
his battles by being always ready to move at once, and with 
alacrity, at the right time. " I propose to move on your 
works immediately," was what saved one sanguinary con- 
flict. This timidity — this seeing a bear or lion in the way, 
is fatal to any man's success. If you once commence to 
dodge or go around the first obstacle that confronts you, 
you will do so the next, and so on. How many young men 
say on New Year's day, " I am going to turn over a new 
leaf. I am going to strike out," but find when the year 
comes around that they did not turn over the leaf, and 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 107 

did not strike out. The majority of men fall into a rut 
and remain in it until they die. A year only counts one, 
and don't count anything else. They come in on the same 
track they went out on — unlike the old man's dog that 
came in ''a little ahead of the fox." 



THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 

THE CONFLICT IS YOURS — ARE YOU READY FOR 
THE BATTLE? 

It is impossible to be a hero in anything, unless one is first a hero in faith. 

— yacobi. 

Press on ! surmount the rocky steeps ; 

Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch ; 
He fails alone who feebly creeps ; 

He wins who dares the hero's march. 

Be thou a hero ! let thy might 

Tramp on eternal snows its way, 
And through the ebon walls of night, 

Hew down a passage unto day. 

— Park Benjamin. 

It will never do for a young man to sit down and wait for 
something to turn up ; he must turn up something for him- 
self. If he expe6ls any one to negle6t his own affairs to 
work for him individually, personally, he will be greatly 
mistaken. Each one has a battle of his own on hand to 
fight, and if he does not strip himself for the confli6l he 
will be ingloriously "laid out," defeated, overcome, annihi- 
lated. It is a free fight, and every one has a chance for 
himself If he sits' down and waits for assistance, or for 
some one to fight the battle for him, his chances for winning 
success will be lost, and he will be lodged in a ditch from 
which he never can extricate himself. 



108 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

This waiting for ''Blucher," or some one else, to come to 
your aid, is simply to be vanquished while you are waiting. 
Waiting for some rich relative, some old aunt or uncle, to 
die, strikes the death knell for your opportunities — tolling 
the bell for your own funeral — and when you are ready for 
burial, mourners will be few. If you succumb to the first 
little obstacle that confronts you, the next will be more for- 
midable, and so on ad infinihun. To lie down and give 
up to opposition, is fatal to your success in anything you 
undertake. 

OPPOSITION. 

He who wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our 
antagonist is our helper. — Burke. 

Every young man, if he experts to rise, must have oppo- 
sition. The kite will not go up in a calm, or remain up 
when it is calm. A vessel cannot sail on a quiet sea, in a 
dead calm. It is the storm that hastens the bark to its des- 
tination. To develop power you must meet opposition. It 
is competition, opposition, that brings a man out. It avails 
nothing for a young man to be at the head of his class all 
the time. It is a damage to any student to be always the 
best one of his class — no stimulant to nerve him up to 
greater efforts. You must have opposition if you would 
excel. 

EVERY ONE MUST TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN 



/ 



HEAD. 



A lot of boys broke into a house where there was a quan- 
tity of powder stored in barrels. They ran up stairs and 
everywhere, and, while in their fun and frolic, one boy 
below applied a match to the powder, and sung out to those 
up stairs, "Every boy take care of his own head." 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 109 

A notorious fighter, when on his death -bed, was asked by 
one of his sons why it was he never was whipped in all the 
fights and rows he had been engaged in. His answer was 
that, "Whenever I saw a head I hit it." So, to attain suc- 
cess, you must hit every obstacle that stands in the way of 
your success, and hit it hard. No legitimate means should 
prevent your progress onward and upward. 

When one of Napoleon's marshals told him the Alps were 
in the way of his proposed campaign, he answered him, 
with tremendous emphasis, "There are no Alps." Moun- 
tains piled upon mountains, gorges, chasms, or glaciers, 
however broad, or deep, or slippery, were but mole-hills 
before his resistless, unconquerable ambition. No such 
word as fail was in his vocabulary. 

GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

General Taylor won imperishable renown in the war with 
Mexico, and was designated, "The man who never knew 
when he was whipped." With all of his bull-dog tenacity 
he ever kept on fighting. Propelled by his indomitable 
spirit that knew no surrender, he never gave up; though 
his army might be cut in pieces, and half lying dead on the 
battle-field, or hors de combat, he rallied his broken and 
shattered ranks to charge the enemy again with redoubled 
fury. Although every advantage was with the Mexicans, 
yet his invincible spirit incited his gallant soldiers with a 
dash and daring that carried dismay into the very ranks of 
the enemy, and, sweeping down on them with terrific im- 
petuosity, no force was left on the battle-field to oppose 
him. The enemy had fled like chaff before a whirlwind ; 
General Taylor won the sobriquet that will ever attach to 
his name, never to be forgotten — " Rough and Ready" — 



110 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

the soldier who " never knew when he was whipped." That 
unconquerable spirit made him the man he was ; the gallant 
soldier of his time, and made him the twelfth president of 
the United States. Such is the stuff that heroes are made 
of. No milk-and-water composition in the men who make 
their mark in the world. They do not spend their best 
days lying around street- corners and saloons, waiting for 
something to turn up. Far from it. They were preparing 
for the fight years before the battle was begun, and that was 
what made them vi6lorious when the crisis came. 

ON THE VOYAGE — EACH ONE HIS OWN PILOT. 

*' Voyager upon life's sea, 
To yourself be true ; 
And what e'er your lot may be, 
Paddle your own canoe. 
" When the world is cold and dark, 
Keep an aim in view ; 
And towards the beacon mark, 
Paddle your own canoe. 
" Leave to heaven, in humble trust, 
All you will to do ; 
But, if you succeed, you must 
Paddle your own canoe." 

Launched on the voyage of life, every young man eventu- 
ally arrives at a point where his little bark must be cut loose 
from pilotage, and the guiding hand of parental care be 
withdrawn. Each returning wave will carry him still farther 
away, and, if he would reach the desired port in safety, he 
must ''paddle his own canoe." No one can or will paddle 
it for him, and the sooner he becomes aware of this faft the 
better. However much he may dread its hardships and 
dangers, or however weary he becomes, there is no escape 
from it — fkere is no going ashore. Inexorable fate compels 
every one to make the voyage. Success or failure rests 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 111 

with each voyager. Already he is adrift. He is in the 
current — ever increasing as it bears him farther and farther 
out to where the billows run the highest and storms rage 
the fiercest. The desired haven is up stream, and the cur- 
rent is full of wrecks sweeping past, greatly increasing the 
danger. The trip affords no quiet harbor, no lee shore, no 
anchorage-ground, no stopping-place, along the way for 
rest, no place where the current slackens its swiftness. It 
never slackens — it is always rapid, ever increasing as the 
years speed along. There can be no resting on the oars. 
Every lost stroke imperils the safety of the voyage. Only 
by constant and vigorous pulling at the oars can the rushing 
current be overcome. Drop the oars, or lie down at ease, 
and the current sweeps the bark downward, and the longer 
the rest the swifter it goes with ever accelerating speed. 
Every moment it rapidly nears the whirlpool — the vortex. 
If once caught by the boiling surges, your fate is sealed. A 
leap, a plunge, and you are engulfed in an abyss from which 
there is no rescue — no escape. The voyage is up — it's 
lost. " Oh ! the wrecks along that shore ! " It is lined with 
the stranded barks. Would you look at them ? Visit the 
jails, state prisons, lunatic asylums, the mad-houses — they 
are there. Listen to the sad tales they tell, and the songs 
they sing. The refrain is but the wail of thousands — of 
millions ; of fortunes lost, of hopes blasted, of disappointed 
ambitions, and of hopeless despair, over the failure of a 
voyage that cannot be repeated. Daily the tale is told — 
the song is sung in doleful strains, like funeral marches to 
the dead. 

Do you want to see the barks that are floating down 
stream? They are everywhere. Young men loafing on the 
street-corners are floating down stream ; young men hang- 



112 KENTS NEW COMMENT A R Y. 

ing- around saloons, playing cards for the drinks, are floating 
down stream; young men wasting their precious time in 
idleness are floating down stream ; young men who neglefi: 
all cultivation of their intelleftual talents are floating down 
stream ; young men who squander all their earnings, saving 
nothing, are floating down stream. A dangerous class in 
any community. Property, life, are nothing to them. 

WHAT EVERY YOUNG MAN MUST HAVE. 

Every young man must have a chart, a compass, and an 
anchor, with a cable that will not part. Hundreds of young 
men start out having none of these prerequisites. Going 
to sea without a compass is to be lost; going to sea without 
a chart is foolhardiness ; going to sea without an anchor 
and a strong cable, is simply to be driven by every gale, to 
be dashed upon the rocks and lost. You must lay out on 
your chart, in detail, the way you wish to go. You must 
man the helm, and hold it firm on the course against all 
combined forces. Never let go the helm. 

" Mallet and chisel aloft I bear ; 

Though above the clouds the swallows fly. 
I, with naught but courage, dare 
Mount higher still toward the distant sky." 

don't give up. 

On the day of victory no weariness is felt. — Arabic Proverb. 

The continual dropping of water will wear away the 
hardest stone. It is the repeated blows that break the rock. 
It is the last stroke of the pick that turns up the shining 
dust. Many a man has been right on the brink of a princely 
fortune and lost it for not striking one blow more. When 
you take hold of an enterprise stick to it until you have 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 113 

tested it. Go to the end. It was the last shot that hit the 
magazine and blew up the enemy's works. Add one step 
more before you abandon the race. 

Governor Morton, of Massachusetts, was a cari^dde for 
sixteen successive years before he was chosen „o tne office, 
and at last was elected by a majority of only one vote. 

PERSEVERANCE. 

One step and then another, 

And the longest walk is ended ; 
One stitch and then another, 

And the largest rent is mended ; 
One brick upon another, 

And the highest wall is made ; 
One flake upon another, 

And the deepest snow is laid. 

So the little coral workers, 

By their slow and constant motion. 
Have built those pretty islands 

In the distant, dark-blue ocean, 
And the noblest undertakings 

Man's wisdom hath conceived, 
By oft-repeated effort 

Have been patiently achieved. 

Then do not look disheartened 

On the work you have to do, 
And say that such a mighty task 

You never can get through ; - 
But just endeavor day by day 

Another point to gain, ' 
And soon the mountain *which you feared 

Will prove to be a plain. 

" Rome was not built in a day," 

The ancient proverb teaches, 
And nature by her trees and flowers, 

The same sweet sermon preaches. 
Think not of far-off duties, 

But of duties which are near, 
And having once begun the work. 

Resolve to persevere. — Selected. 



114 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

A Davenport boy went to New York to solicit a position 
to travel for a wholesale house. He went five times to one 
establishment, and every time was told they did not want 
to engage him. He tried to prevail on them to allow him 
to make a trial trip. No, they would not do that. Finally 
he proposed to buy a small stock of goods. This was busi- 
ness. They were ready to sell. He went upon the road, 
sold his stock, and made money. The firm saw that he 
*' meant business," and they were ready to employ him to 
travel for them. Now he is one of the firm, and is worth 
considerable money. It was his persistence that won. Not 
one boy in a hundred would have had the courage to apply 
a second time, after one refusal. Nothing like courage and 
faith when an obje6l is to be accomplished. One of the 
partners of the house had only fourteen cents left when he 
reached New York to seek his fortune. 

A young man brought up to hard work on a farm, trained 
to the closest economy in his earlier years, has the power 
of endurance that a city boy does not possess, consequently 
he will make the best business man. 

HOW JOHN MORRISEY WENT TO CONGRESS. 

John Morrisey, the notorious prize-fighter, and keeper 
of gambling-hells, when first married, could not read or 
write. His wife taught him these accomplishments. In the 
day-time she would study the lesson, and at night teach it 
to him. The morning after his fight with Heenan, with his 
head all bandaged up, she made him sit up in bed and 
recite his lesson. He would often get discouraged in study- 
ing fraftions and the like, but she told him if he gave up 
he never would go to congress. He asked if she meant 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 115 

what she said, and she told him she did; so he would keep 
at the nightly lessons, and he did go to congress. It shows 
what a man can do when he puts himself to the work. 

CATCHING THE TRAIN. 
The sure way to miss success is to miss the opportunity. — Philarete Chasles. 
We must take the current when it serves, or lose our venture. — Shakspeare. 

We have seen a man start out to take a morning train. 
He would look at his watch and say, "Well, I am a little 
late this morning; I guess I shall miss the train," and he 
goes moping along just as though he meant to miss it. He 
hears the whistle and then begins to quicken his pace. As 
the train nears the depot he runs lively, with all his might, 
and arrives at the depot just as the train moves out at the 
opposite end. All out of breath, he exclaims, "That is just 
my luck. I expe6led I would miss it when I started." See 
the difference : His neighbor looks at his watch, and says 
to his wife, "Only three minutes to train-time; I'll make it; 
good-bye!" and the way he tears down street is a terror to 
small boys on the sidewalk, and he dashes into the street 
for fear of knocking down half a dozen people, or being 
tripped up by them ; and, just as the train enters the depot, 
he enters at the opposite end, and remarks to a friend, that 
this is a little the quickest time he ever made — "I told my 
wife I'd make it, and I am here." This man runs to win — 
the other runs to miss. Each had the same time and dis- 
tance to span. 

Resolution is mighty, when backed by an unconquerable 
will to carry it out. Resolution is powerless, worthless, 
when there is nothing to back it. It was at the starting- 
place where the race was decided. 

There is never but one opportunity of a kind. O! opportunity, thy guilt is 
great. — Thoreau. 



116 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS LOST ! TEN THOUSAND 
DOLLARS won! 

The man who went on the first train bought the morning 
paper, and looking over the market reports found that nails 
had advanced seventy-five cents per keg. As soon as he 
reached his counting-room he withdrew from sale all the 
nails he had on hand. He sent out his confidential clerk 
to buy all the nails he could at "yesterday's prices." He 
drops into the store of the man who missed the morning 
train, buys his entire stock of nails, to be delivered on call, 
and passes over a check for the same. The next train, three 
hours later, brings in the man who missed the first train. 
Clerks are busy, and a large pile of letters from correspon- 
dents require his first attention. When lunch-time arrives 
he steps into the merchants' dining-rooms, and while wait- 
ing to be served looks over the morning paper, reads the 
market reports, and learns that nails have advanced seventy- 
five cents per keg. Bolting his dinner hurriedly down, he 
hurries back to his store to " mark up prices" on nails, and 
finds that his neighbor has bought him out at "yesterday's 
prices." He exclaims, "Just my luck; missing the first 
train, I have missed a clean profit of ten thousand dollars 
on the stock of nails I had on hand last night." Luck! 
There was no luck about it. It was the two minutes too 
late for the first train. Young man, remember to take the 
first train. The first man made ten thousand dollars, the 
last man lost ten thousand dollars. 

HOW WE LEARNED TO PLAY THE ORGAN. 

Our home for twenty-one years was upon one of the high 
hills of New Hampshire. A farmer's boy, we knew nothing 
of the outside world, and much less of organs and pianos, 




" We sat down to the organ, wearing hat and overcoat, with collar 
turned up around our ears." {Page 117.) 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 117 

and had never seen a piano. When we were about thirty 
years of age we conceived the idea that it would be a good 
investment to own a cabinet organ and know how to play 
it. We were employed at the time as a salesman in the 
largest dry-goods establishment in a flourishing manufac- 
turing city in Massachusetts. The proprietor was very 
exacting. The store must be the first one opened in the 
morning and the last one to close at night. We could not 
move the first thing toward shutting up until the city-hall 
clock had struck the hour of nine. Then the goods outside 
were to be brought in, and those displayed in the windows 
removed, and the curtains hung over all the shelves, and 
the show-cases covered. The floor then had to be care- 
fully and thoroughly swept. We could not reach our 
boarding-place until after half-past nine any night. Occa- 
sionally on Saturday night the store was kept open until ten 
o'clock. 

It was winter ; we had no fire in our room and could not 
afford one. We sat down to the organ — wearing hat and 
overcoat, with collar turned up around our ears. The ivory 
keys, and the air coming up beside them, benumbed our 
fingers. By the time we read the notes for a '' chord," and 
pressed the keys down and ''sounded the chord," our 
fingers ached with pain. We would hold them over the 
lamp to ''warm up." Then another chord would be ''fig- 
ured out," and "played." We pra6liced this way all winter. 
It was no easy task. We had hard work before us, and 
stubborn opposition. The strongest kind of a combination 
— worse than a printer's union, or any other union we 
have any knowledge of — was working against us. The 
battle was with our stubborn fingers; they must be con- 
quered, or we must give up trying to learn to play the 



118 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

organ. It was a doubtful problem which would succeed. 
Our will was strong, and we waged a constant war with the 
enemy. They had had their own way for thirty years, and 
proposed to have it forever. They were very harmonious 
in their movements ; if one moved they all moved in unison 
on the same line. We could not play good music in that 
way. The union movement must be overcome. It was will 
versus muscle, chords, ligaments, and joints. The will was 
unconquerable. The aching and swollen fingers showed 
how severely the battle raged, and how terribly they suf- 
fered. To move them separately was the great thing to be 
accomplished. Too long had they grasped the plow-han- 
dles and swung the axe to adjust themselves to an entirely 
new business, to work independent of each other. Slowly, 
but not very gracefully, they yielded. We had, however, 
excellent encouragement, aside from our own gratification, 
over our ability to "hold on" to a chord to the fullest 
extent allowable, when we were sure we had it. Also, from 
the compliments by the boarders at the breakfast table, as 
to how they laid azvake all the time we were playing, lis.- 
tening to the ravishing strains of music as they rose and 
swelled through the corridors of the house. They won- 
dered whether we had the power of continuance; and 
whether we could and would continue to bring out such 
harmonies — surpassing Haydn, Mozart, and those great 
composers, for ever and ever. Well, we could not do it. 
For those who had no ear for music, and could not distin- 
guish the pealing notes of the organ, from the cats that 
performed nightly in the back-yard, we had supreme con- 
tempt. They never seemed to have any more love for our 
music than the solemn caterwaulings outside. They pre- 
ferred to sleep. We cannot now recall all the high compli- 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 119 

ments we were daily the recipient of; but, if they slept, 
they missed the greatest opportunity of their lives, and we 
ever had pity for them. Many of these compliments were 
of so decided a personal charafter that it would look too 
much for our modesty to have them appear in print. 

Several times we came near giving up in despair. Prob- 
ably we would have done so had we not run across the fol- 
lowing lines, which w^e cut out of a paper and pasted over 
one of our hardest lessons, and they stick to that lesson 
to-day, and we now occasionally read them with great sat- 
isfaction : 

''The longer I live the more I am certain that the great 
difference between men, between the feeble and the power- 
ful, the great and the insignificant, is eiiergy — invincible 
determination. A purpose once fixed, and then — death or 
victory. That quality will do anything that can be done in 
this world; and no talents, no circumstances, no opportu- 
nities, will make a two-legged creature a man without it." 
— Buxton. 

As Charles Lamb once said about an oyster-pie dinner, 
''That did the business for us." 

It is wonderful what power there is in half a dozen lines 
to rouse up the latent, dormant, and undeveloped energies 
of the mind. Words that never have been heard by mor- 
tal ears, silently entering into the windows of the soul, how 
they will ring loud and clear upon our inner perceptions. 
Often times, when we strive the hardest to drive them out 
of mind, louder and still louder they ring out, and deeper 
down in our minds they plant themselves — there to remain. 
Is there anything more difficult than trying to forget what 
we dislike to remember — to forget an unkind remark or a 



1 20 KENT 'S NE W COMMENT AE Y. 

questioning of motives? Bury it, if you can. No grave 
has yet been sunk deep enough to keep it down. ''Ban- 
quo's ghost" will keep coming up just when we want it to 
'' keep down." Read the above lines ! Every word is worth 
a dollar; every line a hundred dollars. Complete, they 
are worth a thousand dollars to every young man who will 
engrave them upon the tablets of his memory. To some 
young man it will bring untold wealth — honors that will not 
die with the vanishing breath of vain lamentations. Good 
words, well spoken, never die. 

There are many young men who will commence business 
without a dollar in money. All their capital will be in the 
good use they make of the lines above quoted. They will 
lay the foundation of a magnificent fortune — to be counted 
by millions It has been done by many living millionaires. 
It will be done by some young man perhaps now chopping 
wood for his board. Young man, it may be you ! Read 
them carefully ! Write them in a book, and when you are 
about ready to give up, read them again. Hold on one day 
more. Make one more effort, with all your might. They 
will be your talisman to success — to a glorious viflory, if 
you are on the ''right track." 

Well, did it pay us? We surpassed our first teacher, and 
at his request we took his seat at the pipe-organ in church. 
We were very soon wanted in another church, at a much 
better salary. Owing to the state of our finances, we needed 
the change, and accepted the '' callT We always thought 
that it was our financial situation that made it so loud a 
CALL. After a time we came west. Our talents could not 
be hid. We had four more calls to play in church than we 
could possibly fill. We were called on for a great many 
gratuitous services, which we cheerfully rendered. We 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 121 

did not do it for advertising purposes, yet it did advertise 
us nevertheless. A new man at the organ had all eyes on 
him, while we might have sat with the congregation six 
months and not six persons known us by name. Sabbath- 
school conventions, picnics, social clubs, all wanted our ser- 
vices — much more than we had time to give. Did it pay? 
Yes ; it paid the best kind of a dividend. It gave us an 
acquaintance we never could have secured in any other 
way. And it paid financially. A music dealer had failed, 
in whose affairs two Boston firms were interested. Each 
had instruments on consignment; one of them pianos, the 
other parlor organs. Some one who knew something about 
music was wanted to take the instruments and sell them — 
some one who was responsible. Our reputation stood in- 
vestigation, and we took charge of the instruments, although 
not in our line. However, it paid us well. Our struggle 
over our *' first lessons" resulted in a profit of more than 
fwo thousand dollars in cash to us. 

Young man, do not lose an opportunity to improve every 
talent you have. It will pay you sometime, and that well. 
No young man could have learned music under greater dis- 
couraging circumstances than we did. To be able to play 
common church music (and that was about the extent of 
our attainments) will pay a hundred-fold more than all the 
cost in money and time devoted to it. In faft the time de- 
voted to it counts nothing. Every one has spare time 
ample for the practice. A few minutes at a time is far better 
than ten hours a day. When the mind is fresh and a6live, 
more can be accomplished in a few minutes than in a whole 
day. 

We were spending a few days in a city in Texas, recently, 
and, going to church on a Sabbath afternoon, we, being a 



122 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

stranger, were singled out by the minister, and he came and 
shook hands with us, and inquired if we could not sing or 
play the organ. We admitted we did play sometimes, and; 
as the regular organist was unable to be there, we were 
pressed into the service. Every one noticed the "stranger," 
and had to shake hands with him. Well, it was not very 
much that we did, but it made it very pleasant for us in a 
strange city, to meet with such a cordial welcome. It will 
be treasured up as a bright memory of our trip. Had we 
been destitute of the knowledge in special demand just then, 
we should not have had any such attention paid to us. We 
probably would have gone away without a kind expression 
from any one. Young men often ask, ''What good will 
this, or that, do me if I learn it?" There is no danger of a 
young man acquiring too much useful knowledge. He 
never will know just when or how his services may be 
wanted to fill some position requiring special talent or ex- 
perience. If you have any taste for music, develop it. It 
will be a great benefit to you individually. Nothing is more 
restful, when tired, perplexed, or discouraged, than to sit 
down at the organ and play some of the grand old tunes. 
It will relieve many a tedious hour. No one can get up 
from an instrument without having been made better. Our 
advice is free — what use will you make of it? 

Let me have music, dying, and I seek no more delight. — Keats. 

Let me die to the sounds of the delicious music. — Last words of Mirabeau. 
Music washes away from the soul the dust of every-day life. — Auerbach. 

Hark! We hear voices — telephonic messages — coming 
from one, ten, a hundred — from thousands, "We will at 
once commence to pra6lice upon your advice." In one 
year from now nothing would please us more than to hear 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 123 

from the thousands who have been improving their musical 
talents, by learning to play the organ or piano, and to have 
such write us of their proficiency, and if they have any 
regrets to offer for having commenced to carry out our rec- 
ommendation. Who will do it? We have so much faith 
in this one article that we verily believe it to be as good — 
yes, better, to every one who will practice its teachings, 
than a present of a thousand dollars in gold would be. 

EXPERIENCE MUST BE PAID FOR. 

It has been and always will be with hundreds of young 
men, however enthusiastic or however hard they may work 
to win success in a business they never have learned, they 
will find, by the bitterest experience, that they will have to 
pay liberally to learn any business, and possibly they may 
make a miserable failure at last. It is a very absurd idea 
that a person can enter into a business without the least 
knowledge of it, to compete v/ith old and experienced men, 
who have been trained up to it from boyhood, and thor- 
oughly educated to it. Suppose some foolhardy fellow 
should step up to the engineer of a passenger-train, some 
dark and stormy night, and say to him, ''Mr. Engineer, 
allow me to take your place at the engine. I have seen 
how you pull those levers. I can do that as well as you." 
Do you think there would be a single passenger who would 
remain on the train, with such a fellow to hold the throttle- 
valve? Do you think a pilot on one of the great steamers 
on Long Island sound, coming into New York harbor, in 
a raging storm, or even on a clear moonlight night, would 
stand aside and allow a stranger who never was on a 
steamer before in his life to take the helm ? Would not the 
passengers rise and hurl the fellow from the wheel ? Every 



124 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

passenger's life would be in fearful peril — liable to death 
every moment. An indignation meeting would be held 
at once. The pilot, captain, and all hands would be con- 
demned as guilty of the grossest carelessness, and utterly 
unworthy of the positions they occupied. The idea of allow- 
ing an ignoramus to a6i as engineer or pilot, where lives and 
property are in constant jeopardy, would bring down the an- 
athemas of every one, simply because he is unskilled — ig- 
norant of the requirements of the position he assumes to fill. 
It is precisely so with a young man who thinks he can run 
any kind of business he may wish to engage in, when he 
knows not the first requisites to make it a success. Not one 
in a hundred will succeed who makes the trial. In England 
it requires seven long years of apprenticeship before one 
can set up in business for himself So you can write it down 
as one of your maxims, that '' It costs money to learn how 
to do business successfully." 



HOW SOME MEN HAVE SUCCEEDED. 

ECONOMY THE SECRET. 

If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher's stone. 

— Franklin. 
Economy is of itself a great revenue. — Cicero. 

Beware of little expenses ; a small leak will sink a great ship. — Franklin. 

Economizing one's resources is the true secret of success. 
It is the only foundation upon which every successful busi- 
ness man has built his fortune. A young man, a stranger, 
in the city of Boston, traveled up and down the streets, 
seeking for employment, but unsuccessful in finding what 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 1 25 

he wanted, stumbled upon a load of coal lying on a side- 
walk, and took the job of shovelling- it into the cellar for a 
York shilling (twelve and a half cents). He saved the 
shilling, and it was the first step towards the acquisition of 
a magnificent fortune he afterwards secured. 

We know a young man who started business on his own 
account, with a small capital, in a city among strangers. At 
first trade came to him slowly. Profits were small, and he 
was compelled to cut down his expenses to the lowest cent. 
Did he board at a first-class hotel, at sixty or seventy dol- 
lars per month, and treat the acquaintances he made with 
cigars and drinks? Did he come out with a new suit 
every six days ? Did he spend his Sundays behind a fast 
horse? No! He lived with his business, slept with it, and 
set his own table. His regular diet consisted of baker's 
bread and fruit, apples, raw tomatoes, etc., at the cost often 
cents a day. Did he succeed? Yes. Every young man 
can and will succeed when he makes up his mind to it. 
The trouble is, they will not make up their mind, and don't 
half try. A thousand good resolutions are but a waste of 
paper and ink, when not backed up with an invincible spirit 
to carry them out, or die in the effort. 

To any one of our readers who has not been to St. Louis, 
we will say that, should you ever go there, you will find two 
very remarkable attractions, over which St. Louis prides 
itself. One is the great bridge across the Mississippi river 
— a wonderful piece of engineering skill, surpassing any- 
thing on this continent; the other will be Shaw's botanical 
gardens, where the choicest and rarest of every flower, 
shrub, plant, or tree in the known world can be seen grow- 
ing to perfe6lioa. It comes, to our idea, the nearest to Par- 
adise of anything seen or read of on this earth. If you 



126 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

have anything that grows in soil, of which Mr. Shaw has 
not a dupHcate, he will pay you handsomely for it. Mr. 
Shaw is nature's nobleman. His generosity reaches to the 
ends of the earth, in securing every variety of nature's 
works, for which he has spent thousands of dollars, bringing 
together the entire product of this globe within his garden 
walls, and no expense or labor is withheld to bring every- 
thing to perfection ; and yet, after all this immense outlay, 
and many years of toil and labor, the whole world is invited 
to come in and enjoy it with him, and the great iron gate 
swings wide open to admit the humblest, the poorest, man, 
woman, or child who knocks at its portals. One naughty 
woman strayed in, and was so charmed with its beauty — 
she thought it so delightful a place — she wanted to live 
there, and, as Mr. Shaw was a bachelor, she wanted to be 
his wife; but Mr. Shaw objefted (he probably remembered 
how Adam lost his place in the Garden of Eden), so the 
would-be wife, for her terrible and bitter disappointment, 
asked Mr. Shaw to just hand over a little money to pacify 
her with. She only wanted forty thousand dollars — that 
was all. Although Mr. Shaw is a generous man, and had 
the money, yet he refused to comply with her demands. 
She sued him and brought him into court, and, in the pres- 
ence of twelve good men, she sighed and told how she ex- 
pefted to become Mrs. Shaw, and for the bitter disappoint- 
ment she sighed for just forty thousand dollars; and not a 
dollar less could cure her broken heart. She may have 
been honest in her demands, but the jury sighed for her, 
and their verdict was that Mr. Shaw must pay her damages 
— and a round sum it should be, all in hard money; the 
total amount was "one cent!" Oh, how she must have 
sighed then and there. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 127 

How did Mr. Shaw become so wealthy? Was it left to 
him by some rich uncle in the old country? When St. Louis 
was simply a little trading-post, Mr. Shaw lived in a log-hut 
on the banks of the river, and sold jack-knives, fish-hooks, 
etc., and, as he could spare a little money from the profits 
of his jack-knife sales, he invested it in land around St. 
Louis, which the government was selling at $1.25 per acre, 
and as the city increased in population, his lands increased 
in value, and Mr. Shaw was made immensely rich by the 
rise on his land investments. Mr. Shaw practiced the stri6t- 
est economy until he secured a fortune. 

EMMA ABBOTT 

Was born in poverty, and deprived of every advantage for 
improvement. Some ladies and gentlemen of Moline, Illi- 
nois, heard her sing on the streets, and they were pleased. 
They heard her childish wish to become a singer, and they 
helped her. Miss Clara Louise Kellogg also heard her 
sing, and was delighted. She gave her some instructions 
and advice, and assisted her to a situation in a church choir 
in New York City. A wealthy gentleman was charmed 
with her fine musical talents, and sent her to Europe to 
finish her education, and furnished the money to pay all 
her expenses. 

Young men have been helped into good situations — to 
become business men eventually, and partners in the largest 
establishments in the country, who spent their best days on 
a farm. Ninety out of every one hundred successful busi- 
ness men in the large cities were brought up in the country 
as farmers, with perhaps not more than three months of 
schooling in the winter, while rich men's sons fail for the 
want of the early discipline of hard work. 
9— 



128 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

WORKING TO WIN. 

Two young men entered into a partnership and bought a 
manufa6luring estabhshment in the vicinity of Davenport, 
expecting, with an ordinary amount of dihgence, to succeed. 
They very soon learned that they had been grossly deceived 
as to the amount of business there was to be done, and that 
the establishment was so run down and worn out that it 
would require a large outlay before they could do or realize 
anything. Not being thoroughly conversant with the busi- 
ness, they needed to rely upon others to say what should 
be done, and in this they were outrageously imposed upon 
and deceived. It did not take them long to comprehend 
the situation — that they were badly involved. Two ways 
opened before them — either to quit work, abandon the 
property, and lose all, or buckle down to the task of trying 
to carry the heavy burden saddled upon them. The latter 
course was decided upon, and they went to work with a will 
and courage that nothing could dampen or turn them 
from. The first move was to cut down their personal ex- 
penses to the very lowest possible cent; to spend not a 
dime except when absolutely unavoidable. Their table ex- 
penses were adjusted on a similar basis. Butter, tea, sugar, 
and coffee were stricken from the bill of fare. Flour and 
corn-bread were their standard diet. For years they lived 
this way and worked incessantly, day and night; saving 
everywhere — wasting nothing. It was business with them, 
year in and year out, and no holidays — no vacations. Five 
years passed, and with it passed the burden, the heavy load, 
and to-day they are able to live without labor. It was the 
indomitable spirit of sticking to it that won the vi6lory. It 
always wins. 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 129 

It never yet happened to any man, since the beginning of the world, nor ever 
will, to have all things according to his desires, or to whom fortune was never 
opposite and adverse. — Burton. 

Twenty-five years ago four young men were attending the 
Iowa college, when it was located at Davenport, and, hav- 
ing no income or fi^iends to help them, they were obliged to 
work their way as best they could. They occupied a garret 
over a store near the corner of Second and Brady streets. 
On Saturdays they did little jobs around the town, sawing 
wood, or whatever they could find to do. One of them 
cleaned bottles for D. C Eldridge, when he was in the drug 
business. They finished their college course, graduating 
with honors, and the partnership of bachelor's hall was dis- 
solved, each going his own way to make his mark in the 
world. Three of them have become ministers. One of 
them. Rev. Mr. Tade, is settled in Oregon. Two of them 
were brothers — one, Rev. William Windsor, an honored 
pastor of the Congregational church at Marshalltown ; his 
brother. Rev. J. H. Windsor, has been settled at Grafton, 
Massachusetts, for more than ten years. The fourth became 
a lawyer, went to St. Louis, married into a wealthy family, 
and to-day he stands as one of the first lawers in the profess- 
ion. During the war he held a very important ofiice under 
the government. If you ever have business in St. Louis, 
call on Lucian Eaton, Esq., and you will find him a gentle- 
man whose acquaintance is worth having, and see the boy 
who washed the bottles for Mr. Eldridge, that he might earn 
his bread while pursuing his studies in Iowa college. 

These are examples of the class of men that Iowa col- 
lege turned out then, and is turning out every year — men 
who are making their mark in the world ; and many more 
to follow, from under that master-mind, Rev. George F. 
Magoun, D. D., president of the college, and the accom- 



130 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

plished professors of the institution. There is no necessity 
for Iowa boys to leave the state to secure a thorough col- 
lege education. The distinguished positions already filled 
by those who have gone out from Iowa, is ample endorse- 
ment of the excellence of the training Iowa college students 
have received. We venture the assertion that neither Har- 
vard nor Yale can show a larger percentage of successful 
talent in the same time among its graduates. 

KEEP OUT OF DEBT. 

Many delight more in giving of presents than in paying their debts. 

— .SV;- P. Sidney. 
A slight debt produces a debtor ; a heavy one, an enemy. — Publius Syrus. 

Getting trusted for an article is by some considered equiv- 
alent to paying for it. Make up your mind that you never 
will put on a single article of apparel until it is paid for. 
Better go with patches on both knees and a crownless hat, 
than to run in debt for new ones. It is better to have patches 
on your knees than a patch on your credit. If you only 
start right, and pay as you go, you will be right all the 
time. We know of young men who are always behind in 
their payments. They get trusted for a suit of clothes, and 
wear it as long as they can, and then order a new one, pay- 
ing up for the old one, only to get a year's credit on the 
new. It costs full forty per cent more for them than it costs 
the pay-down customer. When a tailor takes a long-time 
customer he holds him right down to the grind-stone. 
Who desires to be seen on the street in mortgaged apparel? 
Here a tailor says, 'I There goes one of my customers, with 
a suit that's not paid for," Make up your mind never 
to have your name on any man's books, for personal ex- 
penses of any kind. This getting trusted for a box of col- 



KENT\^ NE 1 V COMMENT A H Y, 131 

lars, or a tooth-pick, is a bad practice, besides being ex- 
pensive. No dealer will take his chances of losing, without 
a round profit. It injures any young man's reputation. 
When you are a merchant another course may be advis- 
able. If you have a small capital it may be necessary to 
make some indebtedness, yet we are of the opinion that in 
the long run, buying and selling stri6lly for cash is the best 
way to do business. A cash buyer can go wherever he 
pleases ; he is independent of everybody. 



HINDRANCES TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER. 

IS POVERTY A hindrance'^? 

The greatest blessing that a young man can enjoy is poverty. — /?r. Holland. 

The best education in the world is that got by struggling to get a living. 

— Wendell Phillips, 

Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but, nine times out of ten, the best 
thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard, to sink or swim 
for himself. In all my acquaintance I never knew a boy to be drowned who was 
worth saving. — President Garfield. 

Boys born in poverty have the best chances for success, 
for the best of all reasons, that they are compelled to rely 
upon themselves — upon their own individual efforts — while 
the sons of the rich rely upon the wealth of their fathers, 
and have no incentive to spur them up — no dire necessity 
which places them solely upon their own resources. Their 
wants are well supplied, while the poor boy has to work 
hard to live ; and, if he acquires an education, it is by great 
personal sacrifice. If a poor boy once gets a thirst for an 
education, gets his ambition "fired up," it will carry him 
through. Some of the most distinguished men of our 
country left the humble cottages where they were born — 



132 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

up among the hills — with all their personal estate tied up in 
a cotton handkerchief, never to return until they had drank 
deep from the fountain of universal knowlege. Hundreds 
of illustrious men could be named, who were born in pov- 
erty, reared in poverty, and left their homes penniless — 
homes of the plainest kind, where comforts were unknown; 
where it was a constant struggle for the family to live, daily 
fighting the wolf from the door ; where hunger and want 
sat daily around the family board. 

Many noted men were born in homes that were cold and 
cheerless, around which storms howled and screeched for 
admittance; the snow of winter often covering the beds 
wherein lay sleeping the men of the future, and when to 
awake was to crawl out from under a snow-bank. No 
hot-air furnaces there to burn up the pure oxygen — life's 
greatest elixir — sapping the bloom and flush from the rosy 
cheeks, and health from the system. That's the way the 
men of the great cities commenced their early life. They 
had a discipline superior to the hot-houses of learning, 
where an unnatural growth is stimulated at the expense of 
an impaired constitution, resulting in premature old age and 
early death. Witness the mortality among the graduates 
of Mount Holyoke and Vassar colleges, for example. It 
has been stated that a very large percentage of the gradu- 
ates of Mount Holyoke die in less than three years after 
graduation. It is a sad comment on the popular education 
of the day, wherein the culture of the mind overshadows the 
house it occupies. 

Sons of distinguished men — of the great statesmen — 
have seldom risen above the positions reached by their 
fathers; seldom have held an equal position; not one in 
a hundred, or, perhaps, one in a thousand. The majority 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 133 

drop far below — down to the level of the commonest peo- 
ple. Some have become roving vagabonds — dishonoring, 
disgracing their family names. Only once in the history of 
our country has the mantle of the father rested with equal 
honors on the son of a distinguished statesman. That son 
was John Quincy Adams. Where are the sons of the other 
presidents? Of other public men — of Clay, of Webster, 
and scores of illustrious men who have ele6lrified their 
hearers with their glowing eloquence? They are dead — 
dead to all that was noble or grand in the lives of their 
fathers; dead to all ambition, to every noble impulse of a 
noble nature ; dead, buried, unmissed from society, with- 
out mourners — no monument erected by a grateful people 
over their graves to carry their names down to generations 
unborn. 

Governor Robinson, of Massachusetts, recently inaugu- 
rated, was asked a few days ago why he did not make 
his son his private secretary. '' Because," he answered, '' I 
think too much of my boy to set him riding on top of a 
bubble. He must prepare for honorable work in life ; be- 
sides, my family are not going to be provided with offices." 

MONEY V^ELL EARNED GOES THE FARTHEST. 

When a young man earns o;ie hundred dollars by hard 
work, he knows its value. Rich men's sons, who never 
earned a dollar in their lives, and have all they want to 
spend, do not know,. cannot know, the value of a dollar, and 
never will until they are compelled to earn one by hard 
labor There are young men in college who spend annu- 
ally more than five thousand dollars, while classmates are 
compelled to cut expenses down to less than five hundred 
dollars. We will venture the predi(5liou that the one who 



134 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

spends the least money while at college will be by far the 
better scholar, and have the most money in ten years. One 
goes to college because he has a rich father to pay all the 
bills, while the other goes because he is anxious to secure a 
good education, knowing its value for his future success, 
and to secure it must fight his way through poverty and 
deny himself the ordinary comforts of life. 

A story is told of a young man living in the oil regions 
of Pennsylvania, who w^as a steady, industrious young man, 
driving an ox-team, at eighteen dollars per month, for his 
aunt. She died, leaving him an estate worth two million 
dollars, besides a royalty worth two thousand dollars per. 
day. Becoming so suddenly rich, he did not know what to 
do with himself or his fortune. He had never been away 
from his mountain home. He knew nothing of the great 
world outside of the narrow^ bounds in which he lived. He 
decided to see the world, and, for company, he hired sev- 
eral young men to go along with him to help enjoy the 
sights and spend the money. They started out for Colum- 
bus, Ohio. On arrival at the depot he got up a quarrel 
with the hackman about the fare, and finally settled by" 
buying the hack and hiring the driver to take them to the 
hotel. Here he engaged an entire floor for his party, and 
lay all night drunk on the parlor carpet. Next day he 
bought more horses and sele6led a driver to take them 
around the city. When there were no more sights to see, 
he presented the driver with the hack, horses, and all. So 
he went from city to city, spending his money in the most 
lavish manner — astonishing bootblacks, hotel- runners, and 
table-waiters, with hundred-dollar or five-hundred-dollar 
bank-notes. Any way to get rid of two thousand dollars a 
day. He drank at every fountain of pleasure, giving free 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 135 

rein to all the passions. But this style of living could not 
last long. The end came in less than two years. 

The money did not fail ; there was no lacks of funds ; no 
lack of places to visit or sights to see. He was arrested for 
a debt. A stern officer had laid his hands upon him. He 
was bound fast. No bonds would be accepted — he could 
not get bail. His two millions could not purchase his 
release or a reprieve, and he had to accept the inexorable 
fate — death. Do you think when he came down to the 
border-land he was happy, as he looked back over two 
years of his life? Was not eighteen dollars a month, driv- 
ing oxen, better than two thousand dollars a day, with all 
the dissipation, and disgrace, and disease that he had con- 
trafted, for which there was no relief — no cure? Truly, 
the way of the transgressor is hard, and "the wages of sin 
is death." There is a greater misfortune than being born 
poor. It is in being heir to great wealth and not knowing 
how to use it. Wealth that comes without effort, without 
toil, is not always a blessing. 

A young man in Boston was left with a fortune of fifty 
thousand dollars, and in one year's time he had spent it all 
in gambling and dissipation. Such instances are by no 
means rare in this country. 

THERE ARE MANY THINGS MONEY CANNOT BUY. 

The sons and daughters of the wealthy are given the very 
best advantages afforded in this country or abroad. Every- 
thing is done for them that money and influence can do. 
A distinguished teacher said to us, that it was almost a 
hopeless task to make a good musician, vocal or instru- 
mental, out of pupils from the wealthier classes ; that they 
should often send them home were it not for the interest 



136 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

the parents had in having their child learn music. A poor 
man's daughter would get her tuition money returned to 
her if she did not possess superior musical ability. 

What is the early history of all the singers in the fashion- 
able churches in the large cities? Are they from the aris- 
tocracy? No; they came from the poor families — from 
some country home, up among the mountains, where they 
had no advantages for improvement. There was where 
they were inspired. The singing of birds, and the music 
of the "rocks and rills," fitted their souls for diviner 
strains. The more they became filled with nature's music, 
the greater became their thirst to drink deeper from its 
fountains. Mountains and hills echo gladsome strains — 
songs almost divine. A party from the city, roughing it in 
the woods, catch the echoes, as they leap from hill to hill, 
from crag to cliff, and they are thrilled, entranced. Where 
could such strains of music come from — "sweet as an an- 
gel's voice? " The song ceases. The singer must be found. 
They search. A log-cabin is discovered. They approach. 
A timid girl retreats behind it. A rap at the door meets 
the response, "Come in." They tell of the music that 
charmed them, and inquire who and where was the singer. 
The woman knows of no singer there. "That is strange. 
Have you not a daughter or a little girl that sings? " " Oh, 
yes; my little girl sings to herself She knows nothing 
about music." " Will you have her come in and sing for 
us?" And the timid girl comes reluctantly out from her 
hiding-place to sing one of her wild mountain songs. "Ah, 
we have found you out ; you are the angel we heard singing 
so sweetly." Five years pass. If you are in New York, go 

to Dr. 's church, on Madison avenue, and you will hear 

the same sweet singer singing, for a salary of three thous- 
and dollars a year. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 137 

BRAINS AND LABOR: RESULT — SUCCESS. 

BRAIN-POWER. 

It IS brains that win, that conquer and control all powers. 
Brains put into harness and hold the reins to all combined 
forces, animal and mechanical, as well as of the elements. 
A celebrated painter was once asked what he ''mixed his 
paints with." He replied, *' With brains." The great bat- 
tles of the world were not won by brute force, nor by the 
superiority in numbers of men engaged on one side over 
the other, but by the brain-power of the vi6lorious com- 
manders, who could arrange all the plans for the battle, 
days, weeks, even months, before a movement was made or 
a gun fired, with every division and every man assigned to 
the right position in advance. Vi6lory was simply the inev- 
itable result of brain-power developed. 

Individuals are born with unequal brains. It is a fa(5l 
that many a man has made his mark in the world who had, 
by actual weight, a very small brain, yet wonderfully active ; 
while other men, with Websterian brains, by weight, have 
hardly made a ripple. Like the rich, deep soil of the Miss- 
issippi valley, of no more value, without cultivation, than 
the rocky soil of New England, or an African desert. 

''There are many cases in which an extraordinary intel- 
lect has accompanied a heavy brain, but men whose mental 
superiority is undoubted by friend and foe, had often brains 
under the average weight. The cast of Raphael's skull 
shows that it was smaller than the average skull. Charles 
Dickens's head was rather smaller than the average ; Lord 
Byron's head was remarkably small; Charles Lamb's did 
not come up to the average weight; and it is well-known 
that at the death of Gambetta his brain was found to be 
smaller than that of an ordinary Parisian laborer." 



138 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

THE PATH-FINDER. 

When General Fremont, the great path-finder, undertook 
to lead his pioneer soldiers over a trackless waste across 
the Rocky mountains, through the deep and constantly 
falling snows of a terribly cold winter, a long march of 
untold suffering, which was only surpassed by the army of 
Napoleon, on its return from Moscow, he had an experience 
that tested his mettle, and developed his power to control 
his men and himself under a^reat and trying emergency. 
He had not proceeded far on that perilous march before 
his men began to falter — disheartened, overcome, by the 
fatigue of wading through the deep snow, and by the in- 
tensely bitter cold of the great altitude. Falling behind, 
many of his men would lay down in their tracks to die. 
Squads of men would be sent back to bring in the strag- 
glers, but no amount of persuasion — no realization of the 
horrors of death, of freezing, or being a feast for wolves, or 
any force used upon them, could arouse them up even to 
reach the camp, and they had to be left where they were — 
to their fate. Fremont became alarmed as he saw his ranks 
diminishing, and he was fearful that the whole command 
would perish in the mountains. 

But he was equal to the emergency, and issued imperative 
orders to shoot the first man who laid down on the march. 
The result was ele6f ric. Not a man straggled behind ; not 
a man was shot; the command was saved. An indomit- 
able, unconquerable spirit, was master of the situation. 
Until the last man was dead in his tracks, and his own last 
drop of blood congealed in his veins, would he unfalter- 
ingly execute his plans. It was vi6lory or death. To have 
halted was sure death; to go forward was death, if he 
slacken his discipline in the smallest degree. 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 139 

Was it the sudden, unexpefted difficulties which he found 
himself surrounded with that made him a hero in that per- 
ilous expedition? Far from it. It was the discipline, the 
training-, the conquering of himself years before this, which 
had fitted him for just such an emergency. How unlike 
Alexander the Great,.who subdued everything but himself. 
When Fremont mapped out a plan of aftion, it was to win. 
Everything, every movement, was planned to its accom- 
plishment. Probably not one man in a million could have 
crossed the Rocky mountains under similar circumstances. 
General Fremont well earned the name of '' Path-finder." 

WANT A TURNPIKE. 

Genius finds its own road, and carries its own lamp. — Willmont. 

Out of difficulties grew miracles. — Bruyere 

Some men can easily follow a well-beaten road, but when 
it comes to cutting their way through a trackless wilder- 
ness, over mountains towering up among the clouds, in the 
deep snow, facing the terrific blasts of an Arctic winter, 
sweeping down upon them from the lofty and barren peaks 
of the Rockies, they are out of their element. Contrast 
General Fremont's achievements with the Donner lake 
catastrophe. Here was a party of some seventy persons, 
who undertook, in mid-winter, to go through to California, 
and were lost in the snow, and compelled to eat the dead 
bodies of their companions. Every soul perished. They 
had no Fremont for a leader and so leader and all perished. 

BORN GREAT. 

Men are not born great. Greatness is not thrust upon 
any one. Men who have distinguished themselves have 
carved out their own fortunes by indefatigable zeal, and 



140 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

unconquerable determination never to surrender — never to 
give up. They became the ''architects of their ovfn for- 
tunes." The way is clear; the doors stand wide open for 
every young man in America to accomplish something that 
may make his pathway through life bright, and leave for 
him a name that will not be forgotten when he shall have 
finished his career. 

AFTER THE BUGS AND ROCKS. 

A few years ago a Davenport boy might have been seen 
running up and down the bluffs, anywhere and everywhere, 
across the fields at break-neck speed, with a scoop-net in 
hand, scooping up bugs, butterflies, grasshoppers, fleas, etc., 
and, in fa6l, everything he could scare up or scrape up into 
his net. Sometimes he was digging in the earth after grubs, 
or peering under old logs after beetles, or climbing trees, 
like woodpeckers, after worms and bark-lice. Everybody 
asked, " What ails that boy? He must be foolish or crazy." 
Nobody complained, however, and they let him run. When 
the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences had com- 
pleted a building, and thrown it open to the public, every- 
body was delighted with the Indian war-clubs, the stone 
hatchets, and arrow-heads, and the thousand and one relics 
of the red man and the unknown mound-builders. But the 
entomological department was complete — a wonder of won- 
ders. Every known inseft in Iowa, and almost in the west, 
from Mexico to California, and to the life-line of the north, 
was on exhibition, all arranged in classes, with their scien- 
tific names attached. Who could have colle6led such a 
multitude and arranged them with such skill? It was the 
work of the ''foolish boy," who had been seen so many 
years before running down butterflys, bugs, and beetles. 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 141 

Davenport has the finest entomological colleftion in the 
west, and the best entomologist. His achievements have 
been recognized at home and by the savans of Europe. It 
was the result of the concentration of talent to the one idea. 
He had one single obje6l — one end in view. Do you won- 
der that he succeeded ? 

Soon after the foregoing was put in print, J. Duncan Put- 
nam had closed his earthly career, dying at the early age 
of twenty-six. His name will live — he having gained a 
world-wide reputation as an entomologist. 

From the many distinguished scientific gentlemen who 
knew him personally, we quote the following extract, from a 
letter of condolence to the mother, Mrs. Putnam, from Dr. 
Henry I. Bowditch, of Boston, Massachusetts. He says: 

'' He had done more in his short life and while in ill- 
health, than most people do in a long life of health. I 
cannot associate sorrow with such a life and such a death. 
Such souls seem ever to minister to those who are left." 

Another young man owns a fine cabinet of geological 
and mineralogical specimens in the same institution, the 
large cases filling one entire side of a large room, a collec- 
tion costing much time, labor, and money to secure and 
arrange. It displays a talent and desire to read the records 
of the rocks; a thirst for the knowledge to unlock their 
hidden secrets; to know their compositions, and the mys- 
teries of long periods marking each epoch of time. 

Here are illustrations of what two young men have 
accomplished by faithful concentration of their efforts to 
special lines of scientific investigation. The same oppor- 
tunities have been and are now open to hundreds of young 
men in our city, and in every city in the country. Why do 



142 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

they not improve them? Are their minds occupied in sci- 
entific researches in other directions, preparing to bring 
before the world new discoveries in the sciences and arts? 
It is one of the saddest thoughts to every refle6live mind 
that so many young men, endowed with good natural abil- 
ities, if exercised in the right dire6lion, are wasting their 
talents aimlessly. They could distinguish themselves in the 
world if they would only turn their efforts in the right chan- 
nels. Instead of that, they negle6t the cultivation of their 
talents, and the fires that ought to burn clear and bright are 
smothered. The fine ability of the young men of to-day, 
if properly developed, would, in twenty years, revolution- 
ize the world. The wheels of progress would roll on, and 
the wonders of to-day would be forgotten by the new and 
greater discoveries in the w^orld of science. The present 
modes of travel, and of interchange of thought, would be- 
come too slow and obsolete. 

There was a time when the earth was supposed to be the 
centre of the universe, and the heavenly bodies to revolve 
around it. Astronomers then discovered that the sun was 
the centre, and everything revolved around the sun. More 
powerful telescopes were constru6fed, which revealed stars 
that did not seem to revolve around the sun. The heavens 
were scanned for years to solve the mystery. Larger tele- 
scopes were made, sweeping across the immense spaces 
without limit, and other stars, other unknown worlds, ap- 
peared. This new and startling discovery was overwhelm- 
ing. The stupendous proposition could not be solved by 
any previous hypothesis. In vain have philosophers tried 
to fix the bounds, to limit the power of the Infinite, beyond 
which He could not a6l or exist; yet, when the mind was 
about to grasp each new discovery, the curtain lifted to 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 143 

unfold still greater mysteries. The vastness, the immense 
distances intervening between our systems and other un- 
known systems, is as yet unfathomable, incomprehensible. 
Where is the end — where the bounds? Who, by search- 
ing, can find out the Almighty? What a field remains to 
be explored in the starry heavens ? Who are to build the 
greater instruments of the future? Who are to read the 
heavens under the light of the next new revelation? Who 
are to be the men to startle the world by revolutionizing 
the present methods of travel by sea, earth, and air? 

The world is in its infancy. Each day brings a new 
revelation; each year brings new demonstration of man's 
progress in physical supremacy over the elements above 
and under the earth. A decade, and the world of science 
and art ere6ls a barrier between the past and present, that 
buries in obscurity the wonders of a dying generation. 
What possibilities for the young man of the period, just 
stepping upon the stage of active life, to revel in the new 
and startling developments, surpassing all the achievements 
of centuries gone before ! What opportunities to inscribe 
their names high above all of the combined wisdom of the 
past and present! Young man, look up, and not down! 
There is plenty of room at the top for you. Will you oc- 
cupy it? The burden is on your shoulders. Will you carry 
it? And, concentrating your efforts to one thing, with in- 
domitable energy, you will be the victorious champion of 
whatever you shall undertake. 

" The gods sell everything good for labor." 



10— 



144 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

HOW ONE MAN WON. 

Victory belongs to the most persevering. — Napoleon. 

For they can conquer who believe they can. — Virgil. 

Some twenty-five years ago a young man left his home 
in Massachusetts, and took a situation in a mercantile house 
to sell dry goods and yankee notions. It was not, however, 
congenial to his tastes or education. He therefore dropped 
the yard-stick, jumped the counter, and said good-bye to 
all. He entered the law office of a leading attorney of Dav- 
enport, and went to reading Blackstone, Coke, Kent's Com- 
mentaries, etc. His financial condition was such that he 
did not need to solicit the banks to take charge of his sur- 
plus funds; neither did they, to our knowledge, solicit his 
deposits. There was, in this regard, a mutual indifterence 
all around. He may have been troubled with dyspepsia, for 
he avoided hotel fare, and accepted, in lieu thereof, plain 
boarding-house diet. His theory was, that to become a 
good student, whether for business or for a profession, the 
best plan was to fall in love with it. He pra6iiced this 
theory, and became thoroughly enthusiastic in pursuit of 
legal lore, applying himself diligently to his books day and 
night. His wardrobe answered the double purpose of dress 
for the day and dress for the night — bed-spreads and all. 
His economy was worthy of the highest praise. A finan- 
cial crisis hung over him continually, and all that saved 
him from going under were the insignificant cases before 
police justices, which the judge would not undertake, and 
turned over to our hero to make what he could out of them. 
He would load himself down with ponderous volumes of 
authorities — whether touching the case in point or not, 
we do not understand, and neither did the justice. But he 
trembled at the sight of them, and, knowing that the judge's 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 145 

library was the largest in the state, and knowing that there 
would be no end to the case if all the books therein were to 
be brought out, the shortest way was to accept the ipse dixit 
of the young attorney of the law, and so decide. 

Opportunities of this kind, to our hero, were exceedingly 
welcome; the practice and fees were well relished. Inde- 
fatigable in his attention to the duties of the office; always 
ready to work day and night, if necessary, reading up the 
authorities, preparing cases for trial, etc., his services became 
very valuable. All this, however, did not go for nothing. 
Such devotion to business is sure to bring its reward in due 
time. Most young men do not realize this fa6l, however, 
till too late in life. The business of the office was con- 
stantly increasing. A partner was w^anted, and, although 
a score of young men had been educated in the same office, 
none had been so devoted to the interests of the judge as 
he, and so he became the junior partner. Poverty had been 
his boon companion in all these years. 

Now the wheel of fortune begins to revolve for a new 
deal (not a fortune-teller's wheel), and it brings around to 
the new partner, from one case gained, a little fee of more 
than forty thousand dollars. Other suits gained rolled in 
additional fees, fat and heavy. 

Our young attorney does not eat boarding-house hash 
now, or sleep in his clothes on a bunk, under the shadows of 
cords of legal opinions, or set up night after night to write 
up briefs. He has retired from the practice of the law, owns 
a charming villa, lives in the quiet enjoyment of one of Dav- 
enport's most beautiful homes, where friends are always 
welcome. He has spent nearly two years travelling in for- 
eign countries. He is a true gentleman, greeting all with a 
genuine cordiality that makes one feel better every time of 



146 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 

meeting. He did not consult fortune-tellers or spirit-rap- 
pers, but went to work to make his fortune, and made it by- 
labor — the way all legitimate fortunes are made. 

Let us suppose that he had been indifferent and unac- 
commodating every time he was asked. to do a little extra 
work ; the result would have been that he would be where 
hundreds of other young men are to-day — without money 
and without reputation, filling a place that is better unfilled. 
Whenever we hear ''My Country, 'Tis of Thee!" sung, we 
think of its venerable author, and his son, S. F. Smith, Esq., 
of Oak Lawn, Davenport, Iowa. 

Help thyself, and God will help thee. — George Hrrbert. 



MEN WHO STARTED AT THE FOOT OF THE 

LADDER. 

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy 
after. — Goldsmith. 

My advice is to consult the lives of other men, as we would a looking-glass, 
and from thence fetch examples for our imitation. — Terence. 

He hath a daily beauty in his life. — Shakspeare. 

There is transcendent power in example. — Madame Swetchine. 

General Grant when the war broke out was tanning hides 
at Galena, Illinois. He had been a farmer, had hauled wood 
into St. Louis, and had failed to make a fortune at farming 
or anything else. When he was appointed colonel of an 
Illinois regiment, he had not the money to buy his uniform 
and necessary equipage. His old friend, and our old friend, 
E. A. Collins, Esq., loaned him the money — four hundred 
dollars. He had failed in everything he had taken hold of, 
but his military record shows that he had found \)\s forte ; 
also the enemy's fort, and taken it. To-day he stands upon 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 147 

the highest round of fame ever reached by any human 
being. The entire world has paid its comphments to U. S. 
Grant. 

Daniel Webster had no remarkable traits of character 
in his boyhood. He was sent to Exeter academy in New 
Hampshire. After remaining awhile he gave up and started 
home. A neighbor found him on his way, by the roadside, 
crying. He asked him what was the matter. He said he 
could never make a scholar ; he was always at the foot of 
his class, and the boys were making fun of him, and he had 
given up school and was going home. . The neighbor told 
him that he must not do that, but go back to school, and if 
he would study hard it would not be long before he would 
stand at the head of his class. Daniel took the advice and 
went back. He applied himself to his studies with a deter- 
mination to win, and it was not long before he changed his 
position from the foot to the head of the clasa, and kept 
there, and silenced those who had ridiculed him for his 
poor scholarship. When he graduated at Dartmouth col- 
lege, he was not assigned to the position he thought be- 
longed to him. After receiving his diploma, he went back 
of the college building and said to his associates, ''This 
diploma will not make me a great man. If I ever distin- 
guish myself hereafter it will be by my own individual 
efforts; this sheep-skin will not do it." He tore up his 
diploma, with the remark that " Dartmouth college will 
hear from me." And they did hear from him, for they had 
to call him back to save their charter — the charter of the 
college that did not appreciate his talents when he grad- 
uated; and they were compelled to employ him in its de- 
fense, and it was by his masterly efforts that it was forever 
established on a foundation as lasting as the granite which 



148 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

it rests upon. When he appeared at the trial, the question 
was asked by the leading men of the bar, '' What can that 
young man say in^ defense of the college charter?'' The 
odds were against him. A rich and powerful state, with 
finest legal talent, was arrayed against a young man alone, 
and he was engaged simply because the college was too 
poor to employ first-class counsel. The young man found 
something to say, and it is said that his masterly eloquence 
brought tears from the eyes of the presiding judge, as well 
as from many of the spectators. He did have something 
to say, and said it well. 

Hon. George W. McCrary, late secretary of war and suc- 
cessor to Judge Dillon on the bench of the United States 
circuit court, started life as a poor lad, and worked on a 
farm to help his widowed mother maintain the family. His 
manly bearing in his youthful days won for him the respe6l 
of every one. One straightforward course won for him the 
place he now occupies. 

Judge James Grant started low down on the ladder. He 
walked all the way from South Carolina to Davenport, 
Iowa, with his entire worldly efifefts tied up in a bandanna 
handkerchief slung on a stick over his shoulders. He owns 
the largest law-library in the state of Iowa, and has ten- 
dered it to Scott county as a free gift. He has received 
more than $150,000 in fees from a single suit. At the age 
of sixty-eight he retired from the profession, went east, 
entered a school, and took a complete course in mineral- 
ogy, metallurgy, and chemistry, since which time he has 
been engaged in mining enterprises, with marked success. 
He owned, and recently sold, the largest smelt-works in the 
world, located at Leadville, Colorado. He has given four 
of his nephews the best opportunities at home and abroad 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 149 

to acquire a first-class education. His whole success may 
be summed up in three words — work, pluck, push. 

United States senator Joe Brown, of Georgia, was twenty 
years old when he learned to read. At thirty-three he was 
elected to a judgeship, and at thirty-seven became gov- 
ernor. He is now, at sixty-eight, a United States senator. 

Judge John F. Dillon^s early life commenced under very 
unfavorable circumstances. His father was not blessed with 
an abundance of worldly goods, and was obliged to labor 
by the day to support his family. The country was new 
and sparsely settled. The Indians had just left, and there 
were no public schools. The only educational privileges he 
could avail himself of were from itinerant pedagogues, who 
came along occasionally to teach a few weeks at a time. 
But John had a thirst for knowledge, and he made the most 
of his opportunities and applied himself with a will that 
knew no defeat. He studied medicine with a resident prac- 
titioner, and entered upon the pra6fice. His physical pow- 
ers were unequal to the hardship of riding over trackless 
prairies and bridgeless streams in all weathers, and perhaps 
it was not his forte, perhaps not congenial to his tastes. He 
''threw his physic to the dogs," and went to reading law. 
At twenty-five he was a partner in one of the leading law 
firms in the city. At twenty-seven he was ele6led district 
judge, and occupied the position until he was chosen to 
the supreme court of Iowa. This new position he filled 
until appointed United States circuit judge of the eighth 
judical circuit, and only resigned last September to fill a 
more prominent position, and at a better compensation, 
having received an appointment as professor in Columbia 
law school. New York city, and being chosen as advisory 
counsel of a large railroad corporation. His name had 



150 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

been often mentioned for the supreme bench of the United 
States, but the fa6l that Iowa had already one judge on the 
supreme bench prevented his name being brought forward 
for the place. Besides performing most acceptably the 
duties of a conscientious and upright judge for twenty 
years, he has found time to compile numerous law works, 
and his publications have became standard authorities in 
all the courts. He is comparatively a young man, and 
greater honors await him should he live to the ordinary 
age of "three score and ten." Here is a model for every 
young man to study well. No young man has started 
under greater difficulties than did John F. Dillon. Col- 
lege honors and diplomas were not won by him to make 
boast of. He succeeded through his own individual efforts,, 
with none of the advantages that thousands of rich men's 
sons enjoy. Young men, do not be discouraged; do not 
give up. If you have the fire within you, stir it up — • 
make it burn brightly, clear, and strong. Make it hot. The 
road is open; the track is clear; drive on. Remember, 
however, that it is the concentration of all the powers upon 
a single purpose that wins the race. 

Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes worked his way through college and 
through Andover theological seminary under very unusual 
difficulties. The day he graduated at the seminary he went 
upon the stage with his boots "pinned up," to hide his 
stockingless feet, and with his vest buttoned up to his chin, 
that the ladies should not see the style of his shirt-front, 
which was fashioned by the same hand that fashioned the 
first man's similar garment. The poverty-stricken young 
man was not ashamed to do his best, and to do his duty, with 
such apparel as he owned. Such young men make their 
mark, and he made his. He became a distinguished divine. 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 151 

and was settled at Hartford, Connecticut, for many years. 
He wrote and published numerous works, among them his 
** Lectures to Young Men," which had a very extended sale. 
Had he been filled with that exquisite fastidiousness that 
makes some young men, and perhaps young ladies, so 
very nice that all their thoughts and anxieties are on "eti- 
quette," and to be fashionable, he would, like them, have 
accomplished nothing. 

A. Kimball, Esq., general superintendent of one of the 
best railroads in the west, the Chicago, Rock Island, & 
Pacific, is a New Hampshire boy, who commenced rail- 
roading as a fireman, and often worked the brakes. By his 
faithful devotion to the interests of his employers in what- 
ever position he attempted to fill, he developed his capacity 
to fill a higher station. Slowly, steadily he advanced, step 
by step, and at every turn of the wheel came the order to 
go up higher, until at last he has reached the highest round 
in the gift of any railroad corporation. But where are the 
young men who started out to seek their fortunes with Mr. 
Kimball? None have reached a higher position. The 
majority have not even been heard from. And why not? 

Anna Dickinson won her way by persistent and indomit- 
able energy. How many young ladies would like to be 
honored as she has been in the ''lefture field?" Yet how 
many would get down on their knees in a public street and 
scrub a sidewalk, as she did, to earn a quarter that she 
might hear Wendell Phillips lefture. The same man who 
hired Phillips to lefture afterwards engaged Anna Dickin- 
son 2Xfour hundred dollars a 7iight. 

Archdeacon Kirby says, when he went to the Red river, 
in 1852, he met a little barefooted boy, and asked him if he 
didn't want to go to school. He said he did, and went. 



152 KENT'S NEW COAIMENTARl. 

That little Indian boy is now James Northway, prime min- 
ister of Manitoba. 

Andrew Carnegie, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, who is at 
the head of the largest and most extensive steel-rail works 
in this country, was a poor boy from Scotland. He has just 
given his native town a handsome library building, and has 
offered two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to the city of 
Pittsburg for a free library. 

The late WilHam E. Dodge, of New York city, com- 
menced his business career at the lowest round of the lad- 
der, as a clerk, on a salary of fifty dollars a year. He saved 
even a portion of that, and afterwards commenced business 
for himself with no other capital than what he had saved 
yearly from his salary. His great liberality and munificent 
gifts to benevolent institutions are household words. He 
died leaving a large estate. The secret of his success was 
founded upon the principles laid down in this work; and 
they are, and always will be, the secret of every successful 
young man — economy, diligence in business, unswerving 
integrity. 

Young man, do you covet an honored position in the 
world? Would you have your name spoken of only ''in 
praise?" Then learn the A, B, C's, if you have not. It is 
no game of chance ; no lottery. It is the universal law of 
''endless progression" by which the good positions are 
reached. 

Every noble work is at first impossible, — Carlyle. 

Nothing is so hard but search will find it out. — Herrick. 

" The heights by great men gained and kept 
Were not attained by sudden flight ; 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling upward in the night." 



KENT 8 NE W COMMENT A RY. 153 

Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United 
States, said this of his early life : 

"My father removed from Kentucky to Indiana in my 
eighth year. It was a wild region, with many bears and 
other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. 
There were some schools — if they might be called schools 
— but no qualifications were required of teachers, beyond 
readin', writin', and cipherin' to the rule of three. If a 
stranger, who understood Latin, happened to sojourn in the 
neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was 
absolutely nothing to excite anybody for an education. Of 
course, when I became of age I did not know much. I 
have not been to school since I was employed at farm-work, 
which I continued until I was twenty-two." 

PRESIDENT JOHNSON, THE TAILOR. 

Andrew Johnson, the seventeenth president of the United 
States, was born in North Carolina. His father died when 
he was four years old. At eleven he was apprenticed to a 
tailor. He never attended school. His wife was his only 
teacher. His shop was on ''wheels," and moved from place 
to place. When he had finished all the work he could get 
in one place, he moved on. The sign on his wagon read, 
" A. Johnson, Tailor." It is said that this sign is still to be 
seen on a little shop in Tennessee, where he last located. 

HIRAM SIBLEY, THE FAMOUS MILLIONAIRE, OF 
WESTERN NEW YORK, 

When he was fifteen years old, left his father's farm, in 
Berkshire county, Massachusetts, and began life for himself 
with nothing but his father's blessing. Before leaving home 
he exafted a promise from his father not to borrow any of 



154 KENT \S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

his earnings — a promise readily given, and accompanied 
by a sarcastic laugh — whereupon young Hiram said he 
would earn his breakfast before he ate it next morning. As 
good as his word, he rose at four o'clock and lay in wait for 
the overseer of a neighboring mill, and got an engagement 
to go to work immediately, sawing wood at twenty cents a 
cord. While he was busy with his first job, one of his 
neighbors, pleased with the boy's industry, engaged him to 
work for him at the same rate. One cold, snowy day he 
went into a shoemaker's shop, and asked permission to 
sharpen his saw, which the shoemaker refused him, because 
he disliked the noise. The lad said he could do it without 
making any noise, and placed a wet leather strap on each 
side of his saw to deaden the sound. Th^ shoemaker 
praised his ingenuity. But, said the boy, I can make shoes, 
too; which he proceeded to do without instru6lion, and so 
successfully that in a few months he had fifty men at work 
making shoes for him. Before he was twenty-one years 
old he had mastered five different trades, and was in busi- 
ness for himself as a manufacturer of carding machines. 
He has done much for American telegraphy, and was for 
eighteen years president of the Western Union, building 
thirteen thousand miles of telegraph lines, and increasing 
the value of the property from two hundred and twenty 
thousand to forty-eight million dollars. He is now worth 
seven or eight millions, and at the head of the greatest seed 
business in the world, for which and its connefted branches 
he is now building a store-house in Chicago, two hundred 
and eighty feet long by one hundred and eighty-nine feet 
wide, and nine stories xiigh, which will contain eleven acres 
of flooring, fire-proof throughout, and costing, with its site, 
about one million dollars. He owns the largest cultivated 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT AR F. 1 55 

farm in the United States, in Ford county, Illinois, contain- 
ing forty thousand acres, upon which is a town named Sib- 
ley, of nine hundred inhabitants, of various nationalities, 
mostly his employes. Mr. Sibley has expended more than 
a million and a half dollars in charitable and educational 
works, among other things having founded and endowed 
the Sibley college of mechanical arts, of Cornell univer- 
sity, at Ithica, New York, where not less than five hundred 
and seventy-three young men have received an education 
through his generosity. He is now, at the age of seventy- 
six, a hale and handsome man, with a6live brain and body. 
He has gone abroad, by advice of his physicians, for a 
year's rest from his long life of incessant labor. His man- 
ners are genial, and his conversation replete with interest 
and information. His wife, who accompanies him, is a 
woman of noble presence, ten years his junior, who was 
raised on the farm adjoining his father's, in North Adams, 
Massachusetts, and to whom he has been married fifty-one 
years. She co-operates nobly with him in all his good 
works. Mr. Sibley is a grand illustration of what can be 
accomplished by indomitable energy, perseverance, and 
honesty. 

A PLUCKY BOY. 

Some fifty years ago there was residing at Louisville, 
Kentucky, a gentleman who, after having secured a com- 
petence, had the misfortune of seeing it all swept away in 
a night. His son, a lad of thirteen years, who we will call 
James, for short, realizing his father's unfortunate circum- 
stances, was anxious to relieve his father of some of his 
burdens, and sought for work to help support his mother 
and sister, but he could not find anything to do in Louis- 
ville. Going down to the steamboat-landing, he found a 



156 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

steamer on the eve of departure for St. Louis. He engaged 
a passage and paid his fare by ''working his way." In 
due time the steamer reached its destination. James walked 
the ''gang-plank," brave as the bravest — without a tremor 
— hadess, shoeless, penniless, friendless — a stranger in a 
strange city. His forlorn condition could but have attracted 
the attention of the "lookers-on," and if they did not ex- 
press it audibly, they no doubt thought that "there comes 
another candidate for the poor-house or the state's prison." 
But appearances are often misleading and deceitful. There 
was no poor blood in James's veins. A braver heart never 
beat inside of a boy. If a boy ever had the "blues," cer- 
tainly this lonely situation was enough to try his grit in that 
direflion. However, instead of sitting down on the pier 
to weep and bewail his unhappy lot, waiting for something 
to turn up, he was up and off hunting an honest job. What 
he wanted was to earn his bread ; no charity for him. He 
was bristling all over with business for something to do; 
ready to take hold of the first thing that presented itself 
There was no one to intercede in his behalf He was with- 
out a "chara6ler." His record was in the future what he 
made it. Situations were not easy to find for a boy in 
James's plight. The only opening he could find was in 
peddling apples, if he could get credit for a basketful to 
start with. A good, honest countenance secured the apples. 
No doubt he felt proud of his success. His whole soul was 
in his business. He honored his calling by his "square 
dealing." There were no "tricks in trade" with him, palm- 
ing off wormy apples for good ones. His gentlemanly 
ways won for him friends wherever he went. People would 
buy their apples of the "poor boy" to help him along. 
But the "apple-boy" had too much talent for the business; 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 157 

the apple trade was not large enough to absorb it all ; it 
would crop out. Business men are not slow to recognize 
talent. First-class talent is always in demand; never below 
par. A large mercantile house had their eye on the "apple- 
boy." They had been watching his way of doing business. 
Young men who aspire to good situations fail to get them 
often, because somebody has been watching them to find out 
thgir habits. But our young hero stood the test. A good 
situation was offered him, which he gladly accepted. The 
firm saw he was fond of books, and they secured for him 
the use of a good library. Works upon mechanics and 
engineering were his favorites. He had a passion for ma- 
chinery — to see it in motion. He was not afraid to ask the 
''whys and the wherefores" of this and that wheel and that 
gear. Engineers found in him an apt scholar, anxious to 
learn, and they were equally pleased to explain every part 
of an engine to his entire satisfa6lion. In due time James 
was given a clerkship on a steamboat. Here was another 
grand opportunity to learn all about the machinery of the 
boat, and study navigation at the same time. He never 
was idle. When "off duty," he was learning the river — 
its channel, its sand-bars, the cross-currents, and all the 
hindrances to free navigation from St. Louis to the Gulf. 
The oldest pilots at the "wheel" were not better posted in 
steamboating on the Mississippi. James's next step was 
"boat-building." This led to a more important line of 
business. There was no adequate means of saving a boat 
or its cargo, and if any accident befell it it went to the 
bottom of the river. James saw here an undertaking of no 
small magnitude. He organized a "wrecking company," 
Boats were frequently wrecked by running on to " snags," 
and swamped or stranded on some newly-formed sand-bar, 



158 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

and boat and cargo were then at the mercy of the elements 
and river ''pirates." Milhons of dollars worth of property 
was in peril every moment it remained afloat. The busi- 
ness grew to be one of great magnitude, and was reduced 
to a perfeft system. A telegram was all that was necessary 
to have a " wrecking-boat," with all its appliances — crew, 
divers, and all — ready to ''set sail" at once for the scene 
of disaster. It required a great outlay of capital, but it 
paid the company, the shippers, and the underwriters. 

GUN-BOATS. 

During the war the government wanted a fleet of gun- 
boats on the Mississippi river, in the quickest time possible. 
James was the lowest bidder, and secured the contract. 
Although the timber was to be cut from the woods, the coal 
and iron ore to be dug out of the mountains, yet in the 
almost incredible short space of sixty-Jive days from the 
day of signing the contrail, the gun-boats were ready for 
service. 

THE GREAT UNDERTAKING. 

New Orleans merchants were asking congress to make the 
Mississippi river navigable for the largest ocean steamers 
to their port — to deepen the channel at the mouth of the 
river. It met with great opposition, for various reasons. 
The cost, in the first place; then the uncertainty of keep- 
ing the channel open if all the obstruftions were removed. 
Some were bitterly opposed to spending the public money 
on western rivers, simply to give some unscrupulous con- 
tra6lors something to do — a fat job. But our hero was 
ample for the occasion. He submitted his plans to con- 
gress. It would cost three million dollars to make a channel 
deep enough to float ships drawing twenty-eight feet of 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 159 

water. The opposition was great, and our hero was as 
great as the opposition. He would take the contract at his 
figures, and wait for his pay until finished and accepted by 
congress. They were very willing to enter into such a con- 
tract, as the risk was all on one side — on the contraflor. 
The work was done; the contra6lor got his money. The 
jetty system is a success, piling up the mighty floods in 
heaps, so the great ships of all nations can come and go at 
pleasure. 

THE ST. LOUIS BRIDGE. 

The St. Louisans wanted a bridge across the Mississippi 
river to the Illinois shore. Our hero, James, drafted a plan 
for a bridge. The old engineers who examined it, con- 
demned it as being utterly impra6licable. In spite of the 
opinions of these '' wiseacres," the bridge was built by 
the plan. It was one of the greatest undertakings ever 
attempted on this continent. Down through the quick- 
sands, steamboat wrecks, and snags one caisson was sunk 
one hundred and twenty feet before reaching the bed-rock — 
one of the most formidable and perilous undertakings im- 
aginable. The most deadly gases filled the shaft, requir- 
ing fresh air to be pumped into it constantly, so that the 
work could go on ; and then the workmen could not remain 
in the shaft but a short time before they had to be hoisted 
up to get the fresh air above ground. Yet, with the utmost 
precaution, some were overcome, and died from the inhal- 
ation of the poisonous gases. Day and night, for months, 
without cessation, the work went on, until the bridge was 
completed. It cost ten millions of dollars. A grand high- 
way of the nation, and it will remain so for centuries to 
come — a monument of American talent, American genius; 

one which every true American can but feel proud to look 
11— 



160 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

upon — the most magnificent piece of engineering skill of 
this or any other continent. Well may St. Louis people 
"brag" over their bridge, and James, the "apple-boy," by 
whose creative genius it spans the river ninety feet above 
the floods, whom poverty compelled to leave his father's 
house and to seek his fortune among strangers. It is a 
splendid monument to that "apple-boy," whose full name 
would be better known to the people of St. Louis to-day as 
Hon. James B. Eads. Our hero has not retired; he is still 
fresh and vigorous, ready for greater undertakings — to 
build a railroad across the isthmus broad enough to trans- 
port great ships — the commerce of the world — from ocean 
to ocean. We hope he may live to do it. We have said 
what we have for the special purpose of showing what one 
ma7i has accomplished for himself and the universal good 
of the public and the world, who started as low down as any 
one who reads this paragraph. It is a lesson that every 
young man may study to his profit. 

The nerve that never relaxes, the eye that never blanches, the thought that 
never wanders — these are the masters of vi6lory. — Burke. 



WHAT BRINGS HAPPINESS. 

HAPPINESS VERSUS GOLD. 

Riches, for the most part, are hurtful to those that possess them. — Plutarch. 
A mask of gold hides all deformities. — Decker. 

Ah ! if the rich were rich as the poor fancy riches. — Emerson. 

Perhaps there never was a greater mistake made, and one 
that never can be corrected in this world, than in supposing 
that wealth necessarily brings happiness ; that plenty of gold 
is all a man needs to enable him to enjoy unalloyed happi- 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 161 

ness to the end of his days. A greater mistake is not pos- 
sible. The abundant testimony of those who possess vast 
wealth ought to be conclusive of the fa61. A rich man is in 
peril every moment of his life, at home or abroad. There 
are ten thousand foes on his track. All the combined tal- 
ents of the most desperate and daring thieves, black-legs, 
cut-throats, and murderers conspire to get his money. A 
greedy child, a dissolute son, or some distant relative hun- 
gering for his anticipated inheritance, all wishing him dead. 
All are setting traps to ensnare his feet, or hiring some 
villain to break into his house in the quiet stillness of the 
night to murder him in cold blood, to steal a will and 
destroy it. A rich man cannot sell a piece of property but 
it is known by "layers-in-wait," to steal the proceeds from 
him. 

The murder of Mr. George Davenport, on Rock Island, 
Illinois, one fourth of July, furnishes an illustration.. He 
had received considerable money a few days before. An 
acquaintance comes over to see the family, and stops to tea, 
finds out who are going to the celebration the next day, 
and learns that Mr. Davenport will remain at home. When 
the celebration is the liveliest, five strangers steal into Mr. 
Davenport's house. He is sitting in his parlor at the time, 
and gets up to see who is coming. They shoot him, only 
wounding him. Then they drag him up stairs to make him 
open his safe. They choke him until he is senseless, then 
throw water in his face to revive him. They get his money. 
Mr. Davenport lived long enough to tell of his terrible 
struggle with his murderers. The man that took supper 
was the ''stool-pigeon," who engineered the plot. 

A man draws five thousand dollars at a bank to take 
home to pay off a mortgage on his farm. Two men ask to 



1 62 KENT'S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

ride with him. As soon as they are fairly in the wagon 
they knock him senseless, and take his money. 

The door-bell rings in the evening, and the man of wealth 
steps to the door, opens it, and three masked men spring 
upon him, bind him fast, and silence the family with a dis- 
play of revolvers. The house is then robbed. 

Only a few days ago an aged couple in Illinois were 
living in quiet retirement. Burglars break in, kill the hus- 
band, and torture the wife over the fire until, able to endure 
it no longer, she is forced to tell where the money is hid. 

The man of wealth is annoyed constantly with anony- 
mous letters, threatening him that if he does not send one 
thousand or five thousand dollars immediately, he will be 
shot the first dark night caught out, or fixed in some way. 
A man cannot travel without being liable to be "taken off'." 

Gold will not give health when lost, nor buy off" death. A 
rich man rides in his carriage and sees the farmer plowing 
in the field, and says, ''What would I not give if I could 
take that man's place at the plow." The poor man, footing 
it wearily along, sees the carriage roll past and wishes he 
could ride in ''such fine style." Baron Rothschild was con- 
stantly threatened, if he did not "shell out." Thieves and 
murderers are regularly organized and have their agents in 
every city. They plan the work, watch every movement, 
know all the trades and transfers, and ^who gets the money, 
and then send for an outside accomplice — a stranger to the 
community — to come in and take the pile. He comes in 
the night, does his work In the night, and leaves in the 
night, and the police are all in the dark as to who could 
have done the deed. Various devices are resorted to, to 
learn all about the house they propose to break into. A 
man in a working suit comes to see about the gas or water. 



RENTS NE W CO MM EN TARY, 163 

or a leak in the roof — any excuse simply to get inside to 
see how the rooms are arranged and occupied ; or, perhaps, 
in broad daylight, if the husband is away, kills the wife and 
then robs the house. A most amiable lady in East Boston, 
some three or four years ago, heard her door-bell ring, and 
on opening it, a man dressed in a working suit said to her, 
"The gas company sent me to look after the meter." And 
he wished she would show him where it was. She went 
down into the cellar to show him, and he murdered her in 
cold blood, and stole the rings from her fingers and robbed 
the house, all in broad daylight. A man of wealth never 
knows when he or his family are safe from these despe- 
radoes. 

A millionaire's enjoyments. 

The following story is told of Jacob Ridgway, a wealthy 
citizen of Philadelphia, who died many years ago, leaving 
a fortune of five or six million dollars : 

'''Mr. Ridgway,' said a young man with whom the mil- 
lionaire was conversing, 'you are more to be envied than 
any gentleman I know.' 

'"Why so?' responded Mr. Ridgway. 'I am not aware 
of any cause for which I should be particularly envied.' 

"'What, sir!' exclaimed the young man in astonishment; 
'why, you are a millionaire. Think of the thousands your 
income brings you every month.' • 

'"Well, what of that?' repHed Mr. Ridgway; 'all I get 
out of it is my victuals and clothes, and I cannot eat more 
than one man's allowance, or wear more than one suit at a 
time. Pray, can you not do as much ? ' 

"'Ah! but,' said the youth, 'think of the hundreds of fine 
houses you own, and the rentals they bring to you.' 



164 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

"'What better am I off for that?' repHed the rich man. 
* I can only live in one house at a time. As for the money 
I receive for rents, why, I can't eat it or wear it. I can only 
use it to buy other houses for other people to live in ; they 
are the beneficiaries, not I.' 

'' ' But you can buy splendid furniture and costly pictures, 
fine carriages and horses; in fa6t, anything you desire.' 

" ' And after I have bought them,' responded Mr. Ridg- 
way, ' what then ? I can only look at the furniture and pic- 
tures, and the poorest man, who is not blind, can do the 
same. I can ride no easier in a fine carriage than you can 
in an omnibus for five cents, without the trouble of attend- 
ing to drivers, footmen, and hostlers; and as to anything I 
desire, I can tell you, young man, the less we desire in this 
world the happier we shall be. All my wealth cannot buy 
me a single day more of life ; cannot procure me power to 
keep afar from the hour of death; and then what will it 
avail, when, in a few short years at most, I lie down in the 
grave and leave it all, forever. Young man, you have no 
cause to envy me.' " 

A few months ago a millionaire died, and the first ques- 
tion asked was, ''How much money did he leave?" The 
answer was, " He left it all!' " Burial-robes have no pock- 
ets." 

ONE WEALTHY LADY's EXPERIENCE. 

Mrs. Hooper writes of a lady residing in Paris, under a 
disguised name, but none other than Mrs. John Mackay, 
the wife of a California millionaire. She gives numerous 
instances of how Mrs. Mackay was annoyed as soon as her 
great wealth and her residence was known in that city. 
She received a great many letters and numerous calls from 



KENl '8 NEW C OMMENTA RY. 165 

professional beggars and impostors. We quote a few of 
the most amusing and barefaced impositions attempted. A 
penniless Spaniard wanted to return to his home in Cuba, 
and begged for one thousand dollars to buy an outfit for 
himself A Frenchman wrote that he was in desperate need 
of ten thousand dollars, and if he didn't get it immediately 
he would drown himself in the Seine, or jump off the Arc 
de Triomphe. A woman must have five thousand dollars 
or she would be driven to a life of shame. An English 
woman only asked for one hundred thousand dollars to 
redeem an estate in England, so that she and her brother 
could live in afiSuence the remainder of their days. A fel- 
low had given his betrothed sixty thousand dollars worth 
of jewelry, and the bill had become due, and he wanted to 
borrow that amount for a short time. Mrs. Mackay was 
equal to the occasion, and advised the lover to go to his 
lady-love and explain the situation of his finances. He left 
in a hurry. A pretended South American consul repre- 
sented that he was commissioned by a friend, who was 
worth eight 7nillio7i dollars, to seleft a lady for a wife, and 
he understood that she had an unmarried sister and he 
would condescend to recommend her to become the count- 
ess of his rich friend. An American lady was in deep dis- 
tress; all her furniture had been seized and her children 
were starving, and she was fainting for the want of food. 
Mrs. Mackay gave her quite a large sum, and while out for 
a drive the next day, she met the lady riding in great style, 
with a new bonnet, six-button gloves, etc. At first the tales 
of woe affe6led Mrs. Mackay so that she often cried herself 
to sleep, and in her dreams she would see these unfortu- 
nates drowning, or jumping off from some dizzy height, to 
be dashed to atoms. She soon learned that nearly every 
applicant was a professional imposter. 



166 RENTS NEM' COMMENTARY, 

Rich people have more trials and annoyances, and often 
suffer more, than a man who labt)rs for his daily bread. 
Wealth does not secure unalloyed happiness. It is the 
cause of much unhappiness. It is said that there are as 
many disadvantages on the side of wealth as there are on 
the side of poverty. 

"poor Richard's" advice. 

''There are two ways of being happy — we may either 
diminish our wants or augment our means — either will do, 
the result is the same ; and it is for each man to decide for 
himself, and do that which happens to be easiest. If you 
are idle, or sick, or poor, however hard it may be for you 
to diminish your wants it will h^ harder to augment your 
means. If you are active and prosperous, or young and 
in good health, it may be easier for you to augment your 
means and diminish your wants, and if you are wise you 
will do both at the same time, young or old, rich or poor, 
sick or well; and, if you are very wise, you will do both in 
such a way as to augment the general happiness of society." 
— Benjamiri Franklin. 

Gold'.! gold! gold! gold! 
Bright and 3'ellow, hard and cold, 
Molten, graven, hammered, and rolled ; 
Heavy to get and light to hold ; 
Hoarded, bartered, bought, and sold, 
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled ; 
Spurned by the young, but hugged by the old 
To the very verge of the church-yard mould ; 
Price of many a crime untold ; 
Gold ! gold ! gold ! gold ! 
Good or bad a thousand fold ! 
How widely its agencies vary — 
To save — to ruin — to curse — to bless — 
As even its minted coins express. 
Now stamped with the image of good Queen Bess, 
And now of a bloody Mary. — Thomas Hood. 

If all were rich, gold would be penniless. — BaiLry. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 167 

INDULGENCE OF APPETITE. 

RUINED BY WHISKY. 

Though the mills of God grind slowly, 

Yet they grind exceeding small ; 
Though with patience he stands waiting, 
With exa6lness grinds he all. — Longfellow. 

Drunkenness is nothing else but a voluntary madness. — Seneca. 

There is scarcely a crime before me that is not, dire6tly or indirectly, caused 
by strong drink. — yudge Coleridge. 

The evils of drunkenness cannot be painted any blacker than they are. 

— Colonel Higginson. 

''The appetite for strong drink in man has spoiled the 
Uves of more women, ruined more hopes for them, scattered 
more fortunes for them, brought to them more sorrow, 
shame, and hardship than any other evil that lives. The 
country numbers tens — nay, hundreds — of thousands of 
women who are widows to-day and sit in hopeless weeds, 
because their husbands have been slain by strong drink. 
There are thousands of homes scattered over the land in 
which wives live lives of torture, going through all the 
changes of suffering that lie between the extremes of fear 
and despair, because those whom they love love wine better 
than they do the women they have sworn to love. There 
are women by thousands who dread to hear at the door the 
step that once thrilled them with pleasure, because that step 
has learned to reel under the influence of the seductive 
poison. There are women groaning with pain, while we 
write these words, from bruises and brutalities inflifted by 
husbands made mad by drink. There can be no exagger- 
ation in any statements in regard to this matter, because no 
human imagination can create anything worse than the 
truth, and no pen is capable of portraying the truth. The 
sorrows and horrors of a wife with a drunken husband, or 



1 G8 KENT 'S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

a mother with a drunken son, are as near the reahzation of 
hell as can be reached in this world, at least. The shame, 
the indignation, the sorrow, and the sense of disgrace for 
herself and her children, the poverty, and not unfrequently 
the beggary, the fear, and the fa6l of violence, the linger- 
ing, life-long struggle and despair of countless women with 
drunken husbands, are enough to make all women curse 
wine and engage unitedly to oppose it everywhere, as the 
worst enemy of their sex." 

About twenty-five years ago a young man with a good 
common-school education, left his Vermont home and came 
to Davenport. He learned a good trade, was steady, and 
economical in his habits. His father sent him a few thous- 
and dollars to become one of a firm — to be a business man. 
He laid aside his poor appareh and dressed in first-class 
style. Unacquainted with the office work, and not having, a 
faculty for soliciting outside business, there was little for him 
to do but stand as a figure-head. Too proud to go to work 
in the department he had learned, he became "a gentleman 
at large." The business was not a success. It was a failure. 
The war broke out; he obtained a clerkship in the quar- 
termaster's department. The sanitary commission of St. 
Louis, Missouri, wanted funds to carry on their work. A 
lottery was resorted to to raise the funds. He bought a 
ticket. It drew for him five thousand dollars cash. His 
father died, and more money came to him from the estate. 
He married, and shortly after the wedding he invited a 
friend who had just married to spend an evening with him. 
He brought out the wedding-cake and a bottle of wine. 
They enjoyed themselves alone, eating and drinking. The 
hour to separate arrived, when the guest said, "George, 
now we cannot afford this." It did not please him. He 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 169 

was angry, and replied, '' I can drink or let it alone, as I 
please." It was their last meeting as friends. The war 
closed, and other business was obtained. Friends became 
his bondsmen. They had to make up deficiencies, and he 
was soon out of business. The habit of drink was now his 
master. His business and friends departed, yet he still con- 
tinued to drink. The last time we saw him was early one 
morning, and he was entering the rear of one of the lowest 
groggeries on Front street, a place we would have been 
afraid to have entered at the front door, even at noon-time. 
When all was gone — money, reputation, credit, and the 
last friend — he, in hopeless despair of an immediate future, 
leaped into the unknown future. Retreating to a solitary 
place, he sat down, and placing a revolver to his temple, its 
bullet entered his brain, and his soul sped on its journey to 
the land of departed spirits. Twenty-five thousand dollars 
in money, wife, friends, reputation, all went to satisfy the 
demon of drink — whisky. He died in the very prime of 
manhood. This was a young man who could "drink or let 
it alone." 

In the light of this terrible example, young men who saw 
the beginning and the end of this sad wreck, followed the 
same track, step by step, and are now also laid near by in 
the same cemetery; and there are "more to follow." The 
spider's web that a breath would sunder, has been, is, weav- 
ing a net — a cord, that will become like a chain to hold, 
and will hold them like a vice to the last. 

Habit is a cable; we weave a thread of it every day, and at last we cannot 
break it. — Horace Mann. 

We Stood upon one of the beautiful bluffs that line the 
shore of the "Father of Waters," one beautiful June day, 
just before the sun had dropped behind the western hor- 



170 KENTS m:w commentary, 

izon, and were watching one of those grand floating palaces 
gliding along down stream, freighted with human life. The 
passengers were happy in the enjoyment of a voyage 
wherein all was so delightful, and with the brightest antici- 
pations of its happy termination, and the glad welcome 
awaiting them from loving friends, far away. But hark ! a 
fearful crash is heard. Screams of alarm and terror break 
the stillness of that quiet hour! We look for the floating 
palace ; it is sinking, and passengers are leaping overboard, 
or climbing to the upper deck. The river is strewn with 
broken planks and freight. The pilot has missed his course 
just a little, and discovered it too late, and the boat had 
struck a pier, cutting a broad slice ofl" from stem to stern, 
carrying with it one of her wheels, breaking all connexion 
with the steering apparatus. The boat was left to the 
mercy of the current, which was rapidly sweeping her 
down stream, and she was rapidly sinking to the bottom. 
In less than five minutes the magnificent palace had gone 
to pieces and rested on the bed of the river. At the stern 
a man, a criminal in the hands of the law, being carried to 
prison, had been chained. When the passengers were 
fleeing for safety to the upper deck he was fast. The 
waters gathered about his feet as the boat was sinking. 
He could not break the chain; the iron bolt would not 
give way. He struggled in his terror ; in his desperation 
he pulled hard to break away from his fastenings. The 
chain he could not break. He cries for help, '' Oh, save 
me! help! help!" There were none to help. No one 
could help. In his agony, in his despair, crying for help, 
the waters closed over his head and he went to the bottom, 
chained fast. How terrible are the final consequences of 
the slightest departure from the pathway of virtue. How 




' He cries for help : Oh, save me ! help ! help ! " {Page 170 ) 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 171 

easily could the first step towards the final catastrophe have 
been left untaken. The demon of drink weaves a web 
around the feet of its devotees so quietly, silendy, that the 
poor ^aftim knows it not until he arrives at the verge of 
the awful abyss which yawns to receive him. In his horror 
he awakes for a moment to behold the awful fate that is 
looking-, him squarely, sternly, in the face, and in his des- 
peration he makes one mighty struggle to break the bonds 
— the iron bonds — that have bound him, but in vain. Once 
a prattling child, the bright-eyed boy, the mother's pride, 
who so often had nestled on a fond mother's lap, into whose 
bright face his mother had so often looked, while she cher- 
ished the hope that he would lead her gently along down 
the declining years of her life, as she was leading him so 
lovingly, so gently, up to his years of strength — to man- 
hood — to fill an honored place in the ranks of the good 
and true. How terrible the revelation ! Swept away for- 
ever, and she mourns over the grave of her fond hopes, 
buried beyond recovery, and darkness gathers around her 
lonely door. Vainly she listens for the footsteps that come 
not — looking for and welcoming the grim messenger that 
will bear her to a gentle resting-place, where unwelcome 
scenes and disappointed hopes will be forgotten. 

Young man, where do you stand? Are your feet in the 
meshes of that w^eb? 

A young man was found in the Mersey river, England, 
drowned. On a paper found in his pocket was written, ''A 
wasted life. Do not ask anything about me. Drink was 
the cause. Let me die; let me rot." Within a week the 
coroner received over two hundred letters from fathers and 
mothers, all over England, asking for a description of that 
young man. Two hundred homes made sad by the intelli- 



172 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

gence of one young man's untimely death. Two hundred 
homes in mourning over an absent son, and hearts made to 
bleed afresh because no tidings of their missing son came 
back to them. That demon that lurks in the whisky-bottle 
mantles millions of homes in the deepest gloom. 

''wanted — A BOY TO ATTEND BAR." 

We have often seen in the newspapers notices similar to 
this, and one of the requirements often added thereto was, 
that the appHcant must not use liquor. Sober men, yes, 
temperance men, or boys, only, are wanted to deal out the 
soul-destroying poison. Here is a temperance lecture from 
the drunkard-makers themselves. Why is it that saloon- 
keepers and liquor-sellers desire total abstinence men as 
their employes ? If liquor is of any benefit to men in other 
employments, why is it not beneficial to him who deals it 
out ? The seller of liquor knows full well the value of tem- 
perance, when prafticed by those he employs and trusts; 
and also the curse it brings upon those who are addiAed to 
its use. 

Mr. Lill, the well-known Chicago brewer, before the great 
fire, when burned out upon that event, was afterwards asked 
if he intended to rebuild. He replied, ''No; I have seen 
all I care to see of the business." "But what will thepeo- 
ple do for want of Lill's ale? " they asked. His answer was, 
" Go without it; it will be better for them." 

Jay Gould, the greatest railroad magnate in the world, 
does not use, nor did he ever use, liquors of any kind, or 
tobacco in any form. The man who can so manipulate 
financial affairs as to make three million dollars at one 
grand stroke, keeps his head clear from the fumes and fogs 
of liquor and tobacco. 



KENT'S NE W COMMENT A RY. 173 

General Grant, at the banquet given in his honor in Chi- 
cago, turned his glass bottom side up, and kept it so. He 
does not use liquors. He told the professors at Girard col- 
lege, in Philadelphia, not to let the students of that institu- 
tion use tobacco in any form. Yet General Grant was an in- 
veterate smoker. If it is good for a man to smoke tobacco, 
why does he give advice against its use? 

The commander of the Annapolis naval school advises 
his students not to use tobacco in any form, and says, ''No 
gentleman will be seen smoking on the street." 

Dr. Dudley A. Sargent, director of the Harvard gym- 
nasium, says that of the large number of students he has 
already examined, at least one-half suffer to a considerable, 
and in many cases to an alarming extent, from palpitation 
and other afife6lions of the heart, caused by excessive cig- 
arette smoking, and by drinking strong coffee. 

P. T. Barnum, the '' greatest showman on earth," who is 
now "three score and ten," was lately congratulated by a 
friend as being "just as hale and hearty as he was ten years 
ago." Mr. Barnum replied, " I ought not to be, my dear 
sir. I am an old man. I'm seventy, though you'd hardly 
believe it. But I gave up rum and tobacco years ago. I 
haven't smoked a cigar for eighteen years, nor have I tasted 
a drop of liquor for many more years. That has kept me 
young and hearty." 

TEMPERANCE. 

One of the best and strongest arguments against the use 
of liquors or stimulants of any kind, is the fa6t that trainers 
of prize-fighters, teachers of the science of mauling with 
the fists, to bring out full muscular development and power 
of endurance, require their students to abstain from the 
use of liquors or stimulants of any kind. Even coffee and 
12— 



174 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 

tobacco are forbidden. Occasionally a cup of weak black 
tea is allowed. The trainers of young men for rowing 
matches impose the same restri6lions upon their pupils. If 
liquor is good for the system, if it gives strength and pow- 
ers of endurance, why do these professors of the "manly 
art" forbid its use. 

Dr. Mark Hopkins tells us of a mother who sent four 
sons into the world to do for themselves, taking from each 
of them, as they went, a pledge not to use intoxicating 
drinks, profane language, or tobacco before he was twenty- 
one years of age. They are now from sixty-five to seventy- 
five years of age, only one of them has had a sick day, all 
are honored men, and not one of them is worth less than a 
million dollars. 

TOBACCO AS VILE AS WHISKY. 

Whisky-drinking is a terrible evil — a curse, and the use 
of tobacco is but one step behind, at the farthest, on the 
road to ruin. A young man commences with the cigar. 
Smoking creates thirst; but he is a fashionable young man 
— "no vile whisky for him; wine is the only thing fit to 
drink." Yes, but we can right here tell a sad tale of a 
young man of this city (now dead), who went from a glass 
of wine down — down to the lowest den on Front street, to 
quench his burning thirst, for — forty-rod whisky. It was 
the first glass of wine that made him a drunkard. It is 
the Jirst glass of liquor that makes any man a drunkard. 
Cigars and wine always keep close company. 

A young man of Queens county, New York, the only 
heir of three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which was 
left him one year ago by his father, has been declared in- 
competent and of unsound mind, a mental weakness attrib- 
uted to the excessive use of tobacco. 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 175 

*' TOBACCO DOES NOT HURT ME." 

'* Within half a century," says Dr. Die Lewis, ''no young 
man addi6led to the use of tobacco has graduated at the 
head of his class in Harvard college, though five out of six 
of the students have used it. The chances, you see, were 
five in six that a smoker would graduate at the head of his 
class, if tobacco does no harm. But during half a century 
not one vi6lim of tobacco was able to come out ahead." 

DELMONICOS, 

The famous restaurateurs, of New York city, and a brother 
in Paris, the three are said to have died of nicotine poison- 
ing, arising from excessive indulgence in smoking. One 
died of ''smoker's cancer." 

Senator Hill, of Georgia, died of cancer of the tongue, 
caused by cigar-smoking. 

To us the breath of a man who uses liquor is not worse 
than the man who is constantly breathing out the most vile, 
sickening, nauseating, and deadly emanations of the fumes 
of some cigar or villainous old pipe, whose person presents 
the most disgusting appearance. We pity the wife of a 
drunkard, and none the less the wife of an inveterate to- 
bacco eater. We are happy to know that there are ladies 
in Davenport, Des Moines, St. Louis, and other cities, at 
whose homes no tobacco-user can find a welcome. 

We are glad to know that no minister can now enter the 
Methodist pulpit in Iowa who uses tobacco in any form. 
Tobacco-users are precisely on the same ground that 
whisky-drinkers occupy. Each acknowledges fully the 
use to be a bad habit, and injurious, and wishes that he 
could leave off', and would if he could. When you ask a 
man to leave off" using tobacco, and he replies that he can't, 
tell him it is because he will not — that is all. 



176 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

I will be a slave to no habit ; therefore farewell tobacco. — Hosea Ballou. 

How can temperance reformers expefl to reform the 
drunkard, when the habit of using tobacco has coiled 
around them a chain so tight and strong that they are 
powerless, that they cannot sunder it? Then tobacco is 
the greater tyrant — the greater evil. ''Oh, I shall die if I 
leave off." Die then, we say, the sooner the better, though 
we cannot find in the Bible any place for them in heaven, 
for ''no drunkards'' can enter, nor anything ''that is filthy." 
If that does not mean tobacco-users, we cannot read cor- 
re6tly. " Oh, my docJtor says I ought to use it." Yes, doc- 
tors give prussic acid and other deadly poisons. Doctors 
use it! Yes, they use whisky, too. Some doctors have 
neither sense nor reason. We know one who claims he has 
" cut up people by the score, and never found a soul, and 
didn't believe there was any." Yet some of the medical 
talent say that " tobacco kills as many people as whisky." 
We never bought, or knew the taste of, whisky, or used 
tobacco in any form, but believe they are alike a terrible 
curse to our land, and the cause of all, or nearly all, the 
woes human flesh is heir to. 

We recently visited that great, noble institution. Cooper 
institute. New York city, where hundreds of young men 
and women are enjoying its most liberal advantages. Its 
varied scientific courses, the weekly lectures, and its great 
library, are all free. The annual cost to Mr. Cooper \s fifty - 
six thousand dollars. Yet with all his liberality he is in one 
particular a perfe6l despot, a tyrant. He hates tobacco. At 
every turn is a notice which reads, " The use of tobacco in 
this buildings in any form ^ is stri^ly forbidden T 

We also visited the new art museum in Central park, 
where it would require weeks to examine all its rare curios- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 177 

ities, its relics of past ages, its magnificent paintings. The 
building and the arrangement for displaying everything to 
the best advantage, seemed to us a model of perfe6lion, 
only marred by scores of notices that stared out at every 
turn. These were notices to tobacco-squirters that if caught 
spitting upon the floor the police would at once arrest them 
and walk them out of the museum. The police were there 
watching for the man who dares to ''spit on the floor." 

We are glad to see that railroad companies are becoming 
disgusted with tobacco-eaters. Notices like this are being 
placed in their coaches, ''Every tobacco- chewing gentleman 
will have the galla7itry to keep the ladies' coach clean, by 
riding in the forward car while chewing ^ 

Of tobacco-users, J. B. T. Marsh, in the Sunday-School 
Times, says: 

'' I don't believe, other things being equal, there is any 
other class of men who show such a disregard in public for 
other people's comfort as tobacco-users do. I don't mean 
the chewers who spit in country churches and leave their 
filthy puddles on car floors. They're hogs. A man would 
be considered a rowdy or a boor who should wilfully spatter 
mud on the clothing of a lady as she passed him on the 
sidewalk; but a lady to whom tobacco fumes are more 
offensive than mud, can hardly walk the streets in these 
days but that men, who call themselves gentlemen — and 
who are gentlemen in most other respefts — blow their 
cigar-smoke into her face at almost every step. Smokers 
drive non-smokers out of the gentlemen's cabins on the 
ferry-boats, and gentlemen's waiting-rooms in railway sta- 
tions, monopolizing these public rooms as cooly as if they 
only had any rights in them. I can't explain such phenom- 



178 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

ena, except on the theory that tobacco befogs the moral 
sense and makes men specially selfish." 

A party of a dozen Yale boys decoyed that eccentric in- 
dividual styling himself " General Daniel Pratt, the great 
American traveller," to a small dormitory room, and 
mounted him on a chair for a speech ; then they each took 
out a pipe, and in a few moments the dusky room seemed 
like a chimney of Tartarus. At last the General dropped 
a sneeze, checked his eloquence abruptly, and exclaimed, 
*' Gentlmen, your speaker isn't a ham." 

Some young men, seeking for a position, seem to think it 
a mark of dignity to enter an office puffing a freshly-lighted 
cigar. Bear in mind this, that possibly the gentleman you 
may wish to see may not be a smoker or a kam. 

If some of the inveterate tobacco- eaters were compelled 
to get down on their hands and knees and lick up their filth 
expectorated on the floor of an elegant coach, it would do 
them good. We wish railroad officials had the power to 
make them do it. 

The consumers of tobacco are specially liable to heart- 
disease; so say the best medical writers on the subjeft. 



CIGAR- STUBS AND OPIUM. 

THE DELECTABLE INGREDIENTS OF THE MODERN 
CIGARETTE — A GROWING VICE. 

'' I ran across a cigarette-fa6lory the other day. Whew ! 
I wouldn't write — or rather, you wouldn't dare print, what 
I saw. Dirty butts of cigars, fresh from the filth of the 
muddy streets, are the cleanest and nicest of the material 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 179 

used in compiling these precious roads to ruin. I came 
down town on a Madison avenue car this evening, and on 
the tail end there were three little chaps, the oldest about 
fourteen. Each smoked a cigarette and spat his little life 
away. I ventured to ask if they enjoyed the odor. They 
said they did. And the taste? Certainly. On inquiring, 
1 found they had a well-known brand of cigarette, noted 
for its ^' opium soak" and its terrible smell when burning. 
Poor little devils. They can't last long. They were pale 
and sickly, puny and offensive. What kind of men will 
they make? Men? They're men already, in their own 
eyes. They and a majority of our little lads are full of the 
slang of the day, up in all the catches, and abundantly able 
to hold up their end of a conversation. I subsequently saw 
these three boys in Niblo's garden. It would have done 
you good to hear them talk. A blind man might reason- 
ably think he was listening to three old men. Nothing was 
new. They had seen it all before, and better done at that. 
Down went the curtain, out went the boys, but before they 
felt the first breath of the fresh air from the street, each 
puny hand held a cigarette to the vile-smelling mouth, and 
puff! puff! they sickened everybody in their vicinity. This 
is an old grievance of mine, and I don't care to bore you 
with it, but I feel it keenly. 

''Day by day vice grows stronger. There was a time 
when cigarette-smoking was confined almost entirely to 
Cubans, who knew what good tobacco was and made their 
own cigarettes. Gradually the habit spread. Dealers fol- 
lowed suit. Makers became unscrupulous. Little dirty 
boys were sent out to pick up cigar-stumps. Other equally 
disgusting material was also utilized. Opium was made to 
do duty. Cheap paper took the place of rice paper. I 



180 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

wish these boys could see the stuff their paper is made 
from! Wouldn't it turn their little stomachs? I trow, I 
trow. The cheap paper, the old stumps, the opium, and 
the chemicals used to make them 'strong,' deserve to be 
shown up. Parents have no influence with their sons. 
Why not? Because they smoke cigars or pipes them- 
selves. The boys charge all the good advice they get to 
their fathers' desire to keep them down. There is but one 
way to deal with American boys. Reason with them 
through their own eyes. If every nicotined stomach was 
made public, if every time a fellow died of too much cig- 
arette, the fa6l was made known, if the proud boys could 
be shown a rag-fa6tory and stump-grindery, it seems to me 
the cigarette business would be wound up very soon." — 
^oe Howard, in the Philadelphia Times, 

We heard a young lad of ten or twelve years tell his 
''chum" that, "I smoke cigarettes for catarrh." That cig- 
arettes are capital for catarrh, we have the best medical 
authority Read the following: 

smoker's catarrh. 

The British Medical your7ial asserts that the local effe6l 
of tobacco on the mucous membrane of the nose, throat, 
and ears is as predisposing to catarrhal diseases as is ineffi- 
cient and insufficient clothing in the case of women — the 
fa6l being that such effeft on the mucous membrane of the 
superior portion of the respiratory traft, causes a more per- 
manent relaxation and congestion than any other known 
agent. Therefore, as tobacco depresses the system while 
it is producing its pleasurable sensation, and as it prepares 
the mucous membrane to take on catarrhal inflammation 
from even slight exposure to cold, the Jouryial thinks it 



KENT'S NE W CO MM ENTA RY, 181 

should require no further evidence to show that its use 
ought to be discontinued by every catarrhal patient. 

A BILL TO MAKE IDIOTS. 

'' Delegate Post, of Wyoming territory, has introduced a 
bill in congress which it is to be hoped will not be passed. 
It is called 'a bill to reduce the internal revenue on cig- 
arettes;' but a more appropriate title would be 'a bill to 
make lunatics and idiots, and for other purposes' — the 
* other purposes ' being to fill up the cemeteries and make 
millionaires out of the undertakers. Mr. Post must be an 
enemy of the human race. He could not, if he tried, hit 
upon a more certain method of killing off' a large portion 
of the rising generation, and of making idiots of the one 
that is to follow it. The cigarette annually kills thousands 
and thousands of young men, and those whom it does not 
destroy physically it mentally ruins. The tax on it should 
be increased, not reduced. It would be well to place it so 
high as to put those poisonous packages beyond the reach 
of the small boy." — New York Herald, 

Scent to match thy rich perfume 
Chemic art did ne'er presume — 
Through her quaint alembic strain, 
None so sovereign to the brain. 
Nature that did in thee excel, 
Framed again no second smell. 
Roses, violets, but toys 
For the smaller sort of boys. 
Or for greener damsels meant ; 
Thou art the only manly scent. 

Stinkingest of the stinking kind ! 
Filth of the mouth and fog of the mind ! 
Africa, that brags her foyson, 
Breeds no such prodigious poison. 

— Charles Lamb's ^'Farewell to Tobacco y 



1 82 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

WHISKY VS. HOME. 

HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN? 

The night was cold and exceedingly unpleasant without. 
The wind was blowing furiously from the cold regions of 
the north. It capered with the light snow, sweeping the 
ground clean of its white mantle in places, to pile it up in 
huge drifts somewhere else. The hail-like flakes were 
whirled against the exposed window-panes, and rattled on 
the glass like pebble-stones. The doors and window-sash 
shook, the shutters trembled and clattered, while the great 
elms in the yard moaned and sighed as they were swayed 
back and forth by the blast. 

Dr. and Mrs. Hamilton had just retired from the tea-table 
to their cosy library, which was also the do6lor's home 
ofifice. A cheerful fire was burning briskly in the open 
grate — a most welcome and enjoyable sight, as well as a 
real comfort, on that cold winter night. 

Dr. Hamilton had looked over his diary of patients, and 
had come to the conclusion that they were all doing 
remarkably well — as well as could be expected — and that 
none of them would be likely to be any the worse in case 
he should omit a single visit. The lively and uninviting 
condition of the elements without, and the attractive allure- 
ments within, seated in an easy-chair, before a glowing fire, 
may have prompted the doctor in coming to the hopeful 
condition of his patients on this particular occasion. 

Mrs. Hamilton drew her rocker a little closer to the grate, 
remarking as she did so, " It does seem almost impossible 
for me to get warm." 

Dr. Hamilton took the Evening Journal from the table 
to read the news to his wife. Glancing over the local col- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 183 

umn he noticed at the head, in large, black-faced letters, 
the words, '' Found Dead." We suppose doctors are not 
specially anxious to read obituary notices. However, their 
profession very naturally prompts them to notice mortuary 
records. Their personal interest, no doubt, depends in a 
good degree on whose patient is dead. The name of a 
well-known man at the beginning of the notice attra6led his 
attention, and he read : 

*^ Some of our readers will not be surprised to learn that 
old Joe Noxx is dead. Night-watchman Purcell, on mak- 
ing his rounds before light, stumbled over the prostrate 
form of a man lying on his face in the gutter, near the 
jun6lion of Broadway and Commercial alley. The officer 
attempted to arouse the man, supposing him to be asleep, 
when, to his horror, he discovered that the man was dead 
— frozen stiff". Turning him over, he recognized the famil- 
iar countenance of old Joe Noxx. The coroner was noti- 
fied as soon as possible, and the body was removed to 
his home — if it could be called such. It was in a hovel 
in what is known as ' Murderer's alley.' For the benefit 
of those who do not know the origin of this expressive 
appellation to the alley, we will say that prior to the 
erection of the great union freight depot the alley was 
known as * Commercial alley,' and a large jobbing business 
was done there. It was considered the most desirable loca- 
tion in the city for wholesale trade. But when the great 
warehouses near the union depot were ready for occupancy 
all the firms left the alley. The buildings were old and des- 
titute of modern conveniences for doing business; conse- 
quently they were worthless for jobbing, and too isolated 
for retail business, 

"They were tenantless for several years, and it would 



184 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

have been to the credit of our city if they had remained 
empty or been destroyed. We think the owners made a 
g-rave mistake when they allowed them to be occupied as 
tenements and lodging apartments. The alley has become 
a burning disgrace to our city. It has been known to the 
police for a long time as the rendezvous and harbor of the 
most desperate class of criminals that infest our city — all 
the thieves, burglars, highwaymen, confidence men, gam- 
blers, rag-pickers, organ-grinders, and professional beggars, 
and no one knows the number of unhung murderers who are 
there screened from justice. Not unfrequently has the body 
of a dead man been found in that alley by a night-watch- 
man. No arrests have ever been made, it being impossible 
to fasten suspicion on any one. The victims have been 
invariably strangers, supposed to have been decoyed into 
that miserable place, robbed, murdered, and their bodies 
dragged out from some one of the numerous dens into the 
alley, to be found by one of the guardians of the night. 
The principal reason no arrests have been made is, there 
has been no one to enter complaint. The victims could 
not, for ' dead men tell no tales.' 

*'The inhabitants there are on the best of terms; never 
tell ' tales about their neighbors.' None of them would dare 
to 'peep,' even if they were disposed to. It is not a safe 
place for an honest man to visit in open day, and is still 
more dangerous at night. Any one known to have five 
dollars in his pocket, going there in broad daylight, would 
be very liable to be enticed into some vile den, and sent to 
the spirit-land by the ' Kansas Bender ' route. The name is 
expressive, 'Murderer's alley,' and it will cling to that alley 
until a fire or an earthquake annihilates its inhabitants. In 
this alley Joe Noxx lived, when death cut short the career 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 185 

of that most remarkable character. It appears that at 
about midnight he was turned out of a saloon while intox- 
icated, and in trying to find his way home, fell into the 
gutter and perished from exposure. The verdift of the 
coroner's jury was in accordance with the fafts above given. 

" Fifteen years ago there was not a more promising young 
man in the state. Joseph Howard Noxx was the rising man 
of his profession. His abilities as a lawyer, as an advocate 
before a jury, were unsurpassed by any member of the Suf- 
folk bar. We question whether Webster or Choate, at his 
age, had a more promising future before them than that 
upon which Mr. Noxx was about entering. His forensic 
ability was marvellous. As a platform speaker he was spec- 
ially gifted. His persuasive eloquence before a jury or the 
court was powerful and convincing. When it was an- 
nounced that Joe Noxx was to be the speaker, no hall or 
court-room was large enough to hold the crowds that 
flocked to hear him. 

''Under the magic of his oratory his audiences were 
moulded to his will — one moment convulsed with laughter, 
and the next melted to tears. He was a natural orator, 
with a wonderful command of language, and a thorough 
knowledge of human nature, which enabled him to use it 
most efifeftively. Lured by the temptation which is most 
enticing to the gifted, the generous, and the ambitious, he 
was caught in that snare which has taken so many brilliant 
ones — whose meshes the great and mighty ones of earth 
have been powerless to break. 

'' But to the funeral. A motley crowd had already assem- 
bled in the alley in front of the hovel wherein the dead man 
was lying in his coffin. It took but a glance to tell where 
they belonged. A worse specimen of depraved and fallen 



186 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

humanity we never have seen in our travels. The occu- 
pants of that notorious locaHty, Murderer's alley, must have 
marshalled their entire force. Had a delegation been sent 
from state prison, of its most hardened and notorious crim- 
inals, it could not have surpassed this company in all that 
is vile and forbidding. Depravity and degradation were 
stamped upon their features. Their faces bore unmistak- 
able evidence of their true chara6ler, written in a language 
so plain that no one could fail of reading it. Big, burley- 
headed men, coarse-featured women, whose faces revealed 
the fiery passions that ruled all their actions, and the 
motives that prompted them. The deep scars, the swollen 
faces, the eyes bleared and blood-shot, the bandaged heads, 
and the bruised features, testified of the fierce brawls and 
the bloody encounters in which they had been engaged. It 
was a restless, turbulent crowd, 'spoiling for a fight.' 

" They a6ted as if they had come to see a dog-fight, or 
a rat-killing exhibition, rather than quietly, silently, to 
stand in the solemn presence of death. They amused 
themselves in low, vulgar jesting, and cracking vile jokes. 
We were permitted to enter the dead man's late abode in 
advance of this impatient and boisterous multitude. 

'* The building seemed to have been originally a stable. 
It had but a single apartment, one door, and a window. 
The interior was unfinished and unfurnished. The only 
furniture was a dilapidated cook-stove 'braced up' with 
bricks. The only semblance of a bed was a pallet of filthy 
straw. A few rags beside it, looking like remnants of a 
worn-out horse-blanket, may have been the only covering 
there was for the sleeper. A few old paper flour-sacks par- 
tially filled with rags from the street, and a quantity of 
' scrap iron,' completed the sum total of the visible effects 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 187 

of the deed man. In a remote corner of the room a lad of 
some ten or eleven years was standing, with his face to the 
wall, weeping. The coffin was that of a pauper — of the 
plainest kind — simply a pine box painted black, without 
trimmings, and was supported above the filth of the floor 
by blocks of wood. The body lay in the coffin in pre- 
cisely the same manner in which it had been taken from the 
gutter, with the dirt in which he had died still clinging to 
his matted hair and poverty-stricken apparel. The eye- 
lids were rolled back, and the sightless eye-balls were fixed 
in a last ghastly stare, exceedingly unpleasant to behold. 
The sight to James was terrible. Those glaring eye-balls 
gave him such a shock that he could not get over it nor 
banish the dreadful sight from his mind. They haunted 
him continually. No doubt they will haunt him for a long 
time and trouble him in his dreams. James was the only 
mourner. Neither a friend nor an acquaintance was there 
to pay their last tribute of respeft to the dead, or to sym- 
pathize with the lonely orphan. There were no services; 
not a word was spoken appropriate to a funeral. The 
undertaker had no tears to shed. They are not accus- 
tomed or expe6led to weep at funerals. It was a business 
they like every day — the more people that need coffins the 
better. Their time of weeping is when there are no funer- 
als to condu6t. 

"As soon as the door was opened to allow those who 
wished to see the corpse, there was a general stampede 
from all quarters and a general struggle to be first to enter. 
Two policemen were stationed at the door to keep order, 
but their efforts were unavailing. They could not hold 
back the mob-like crowd. Hats were 'knocked in' and 
'knocked off' very promiscuously, heads were pummelled, 



188 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 

noses smashed, and blood flowed freely. It is *our funeraP 
and the 'cops' can go. Around the open coffin whisky- 
was drank to the peace of the soul of the departed. It was 
more than an hour before the undertaker was allowed to 
fasten down the coffin-lid. Two stout fellows volunteered 
to carry the coffin to the dray, which was the hearse for 
this occasion. The proprietor of that vehicle seated him- 
self astride the coffin, refilled his pipe, and smoked with 
apparent satisfaction in having secured the job. When all 
was ready he gave his mule a sharp cut with his w^hip, and 
cried out, 'get up.' 'Hold on; wait for the m.ourners!' 
The driver brought his mule to a stop, and looked back for 
the mourners. The crowd laughed and jeered at the joke 
they had played on him. The driver took it good-nat- 
uredly, for he did not dare to show his displeasure to the 
reckless gang that ruled in Murderer's alley. James was at 
the door; his eyes were red and swollen by the flood of 
scalding tears which he could not repress. The driver, 
noticing him, said, 'Come along, sonny, if you're any 'lation 
to the old fellow inside this box, and see him dacently 
buried.' James accepted the invitation, only too glad to go 
somewhere, rather than to remain there with those har- 
dened wretches. The moment he started toward the dray 
it was a signal for those fiends of darkness to commence 
abusing him. They tantalized him in every conceivable 
way. They made sport of his tears, joked him on a 'first- 
class funeral,' 'the new-styled hearse,' 'why he did not 
dress up like a first-class mourner,' 'put on his black kids 
and little crape on his beaver,' 'the old man is dead, hush 
up now.' James sat down on the coffin behind the driver. 
He was thinly clad for a long, cold ride. When the dray 
began to move they set up their howling, groaning, and 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 189 

screeching, and kept it up until it was out of sight. It was 
a pauper's funeral, and the mule-driver hurried the animal 
along over the pavements at a rattling gate. 

" * There's a grim one-horse hearse on a jolly round trot, 
To the church-yard a pauper is going, I wot ; 
The road is rough, and the hearse has no springs. 
And hark to the dirge that the mad driver sings : 
* Rattle his bones over the stones, 
He's only a pauper whom nobody owns,' ' 

"Arriving at the potter's field, the coffin was slid off' the 
dray and dropped without ceremony into the grave. James 
stopped to see the sexton fill the grave. The doleful sound 
that came up from the coffin, as the frozen clods were 
thrown upon it, made him shudder and tremble with a ner- 
vous fear, and he turned away. The sexton drove a stake 
for a head-board, and gave James a card with the number 
of his father's grave. So ended the sad, sad funeral of 
Joseph Howard Noxx. 

'' How different would have been the scene had Mr. Noxx 
died when he had reached the zenith of his glory. Busi- 
ness would have been suspended, the court would have ad- 
journed, resolutions of condolence would have been sent to 
the family, eulogies would have been spoken and spread 
upon the court records, emblem.s of mourning would have 
been seen upon all of our public buildings, stores would 
have been closed, the bells would have rung out their sad- 
dest notes of mourning, the funeral obsequies would have 
been largely attended and the procession would have been 
imposing. Mount Auburn would have been the resting- 
place of the dead, instead of the narrow lot in potter's field, 
and, in the place of a wooden stake to mark his grave, a 
costly marble shaft would have been erefted with his many 

1^— 



190 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

virtues emblazoned upon its tablets to remind the beholder 
of a well-rounded life. 

''Our task is not yet finished. We have a word to say 
for that homeless, friendless orphan boy. Think of the 
utter loneliness that must have come over that boy as he 
turned away from his fathers grave to go — where? Where 
could he go? He had no home; he dreaded to return to 
that miserable hovel ; he dreaded to meet the roughs who 
had treated him so shamefully, cruelly, when he left to go 
to the grave of his father. Think of the supreme loneli- 
ness that must have overwhelmed him as he turned into 
Murderer's alley on his way back to the wretched place he 
had so long called home. Where else could he go? He 
knew no other home. There was no friend to whom he 
could appeal now. Who would listen to his sorrows? 
What a dismal place for a boy of his age to stay for a night 
even. How cold and cheerless it must have been to him 
when he entered that lonely place ! We wonder if he went 
supperless to bed, to that pallet of straw. You who are 
surrounded with all the comforts of a good home, think of 
that boy suffering for food — deprived, at this inclement 
season, of every comfort which makes your home so pleas- 
ant! Is there no one who will care for this boy? He is a 
bright and active lad, and can be saved if looked after now; 
but if he is left there in that vile and polluted atmosphere, 
he will be lost. Surely there must be some one who will 
not let the little fellow die without making an effort to save 
him. We hope and pray that before the sun shall set to- 
morrow night some good Samaritan will be journeying to 
Jericho by the way of Murderer's alley." 

When Dr. Hamilton had finished reading the account of 
the funeral, Mrs. Hamilton remarked that it was surely a 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 191 

very sad case, and it would be too bad if that little fellow 
should freeze, this bitter cold night. Dr. Hamilton drew his 
easy-chair a little nearer the open grate, remarking as he 
did so, that "it is only one of a thousand sad cases which 
we read about. You know newspaper men are inclined to 
be sensational, and to color things so that the fafts will not 
warrant the conclusion to which their reports often lead. It 
may be a blessing to the little vagabond as well as the com- 
munity if he should freeze, rather than that he should grow 
up to follow in the footsteps of a drunken sot, like his 
father. No doubt he is a little thief. How could he be 
otherwise living in that miserable alley?" 

Mrs. Hamilton said she did not know what would become 
of poor people this winter, if they are out of work, out of 
money, and only a scanty supply of provisions laid in. 

Dr. Hamilton replied, ''That is their own fault. If peo- 
ple will make fools of themselves they must expeft to reap 
the fruits of their own sowing. The miseries of this world, 
in a great measure, come from wasted and willful abuse of 
opportunities which come alike to all. One man takes the 
advantage of his opportunities and a6ls wisely, while an- 
other man neglefts them when they are within his reach. 
So each has his merited reward — the full measure of com- 
pensation that they are entitled to. I am not yet prepared 
to pour out my sympathies on the occupants of that noto- 
rious locality." 

Mrs. Hamilton sat watching the flames in the grate as 
they shot up in many fantastic forms, and then hurried 
away, one after another, up the chimney. While she sat 
there, musing, her thoughts were carried back to the inter- 
esting reminiscences that had been brought to mind by 
the sight of old friends during the day. Still that orphan 



192 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

boy could not be banished from her thoughts. The cold 
chills which she had sufifered from in the early part of the 
evening had disappeared, and she dropped into a reverie, 
and did not awake from it until Dr. Hamilton reminded her 
that the hour for retiring had come. 

FIRE, SLEIGH-RIDE, ETC. 

During the night a fire broke out in the city mills, and by 
the falling of the walls outward into the street, several fire- 
men were hurt. Before daylight Dr. Hamilton had been 
sent for to attend to the injured men. Mrs. Hamilton was 
up earlier than usual. She proposed to take a sleigh-ride 
before breakfast. The hostler was ordered to harness '' Pet" 
to the sleigh, and see that there was an ample supply of 
robes, as it was a keen, frosty morning. Mrs. Hamilton 
also instructed the cook not to hurry the breakfast, as the 
do6lor would not be back under an hour. Mrs. Hamilton 
put on extra warm wraps and her close-fitting fur hood, 
which her great-grandmother, on her father's side, had 
willed to her. She took this extra precaution to guard 
against taking cold or getting chilled, as she did the day 
before in going to the golden wedding of Deacon Bigelow. 
If Dr. Hamilton had not been called away, Mrs. Hamilton 
would not have been taking a sleigh ride on a bitter cold 
morning. Mrs. Hamilton told the driver it would not be out 
of their way to drive past the city mills, and they could see 
the ruins. Thirty minutes ride brought them to the end of 
their journey. Mrs. Hamilton rapped on the door of a 
very humble dwelling several times, but having no response 
she tried the door, and found it was unlocked, and that a 
single brick held it shut. Pushing the door open, she was 
about to enter, but when she saw how dark and forbidding 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, 193 

it looked within, her courage began to fail her. It was only 
for an instant, for she saw that her mission would be a fail- 
ure if she left without going in. This banished her fears, 
and she stepped boldly into the room. Going from the bright 
sunlight, intensified by the reflection from the snow, it 
required a moment or two for her eyes to adjust themselves 
to the dimmed light, and give her a sight of the surround- 
ings. The feeble and straggling rays of light which came 
through the small windows, with all its dirt and the elab- 
orate festoons with which the spiders had ornamented it, 
revealed something of the smoke-begrim^d appearance of 
that uninviting room. A stove in the middle of the floor 
was the first visible piece of household furniture. While 
Mrs. Hamilton was admiring its dilapidated appearance, as 
a relic, a sudden trembling of the floor startled her, fearing 
it might be giving away. However, before another recur- 
rence of the unpleasant sensation, Mrs. Hamilton was able 
to see what was in the room. She noticed a pile of rags in 
one corner, and the form of a youth under them, and rags 
and all were shaking spasmodically, like a dog when he is 
cold. When the mass shook, the floor trembled. Mrs. 
Hamilton approached the bed of the sleeper to see who he 
was, but he was so completely enveloped in the rag blankets 
that no part of a human being was to be seen. She called 
repeatedly to the unknown sleeper to "wake up," but he 
heeded not the call. It required a good shaking to arouse 
him. As the rags were pushed aside a boy's face appeared, 
and after rubbing his eyes so that he could see, what was 
his surprise to see a lady standing before him. He was all 
the while shaking with the cold, and perhaps troubled by 
the unexpected visitor. Mrs. Hamilton at once allayed his 
fears, by saying she had come to ask him to take a sleigh- 



194 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

ride with her, and if he would go he should have a good, 
warm breakfast. This proposition James was very glad to 
accept, the breakfast part of it especially. Mrs. Hamilton 
noticed, before he had fairly waked up, that he had in one 
hand a meatless bone, and there were furrows down his 
cheeks which indicated that he had cried himself to sleep. 
From the bone he probably obtained all the supper he had 
the night before. Unwinding the rag blankets in which he 
rolled himself, he was now ready for the sleigh-ride, or any- 
thing else, if he could only escape from that dismal abode. 
Mrs. Hamilton gave him a seat by the kitchen stove, as 
soon as she reached her home, and gave him a warm cup 
of coffee, and when he was thoroughly warmed she had 
him take a bath and put on a good, warm suit of clothes 
that Frank had outgrown. The boy she sent into the bath- 
room did not correspond in appearance to the fine-looking 
boy that came out. Mrs. Hamilton would not have recog- 
nized him or believed it was the same boy, had there been 
any other boy in the house. He was more than good- 
looking; he was a handsome lad. The new apparel, a 
clean face, and well-brushed hair, made a wonderful trans- 
formation in his appearance. His keen, black eyes, his 
high forehead, his open countenance, showed he had good 
parentage and good blood. 

Mrs. Hamilton gave him a seat at the table by her side. 
Dr. Hamilton was so interested in the morning paper, the 
particulars of the fire, and the patients he had been called 
to see, that the presence of a boy at the table occasioned no 
inquiry. Then, it was no uncommon occurrence for Mrs. 
Hamilton to have a boy or girl beside her at meal-time. 
Dr. Hamilton frequently remarked that it was one of his 
wife's ''faiUngs," to be forever feeding other people's hun- 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 195 

gry children. Mrs. Hamilton always took his compliments 
to heart and kept right on, making many a poor boy and 
girl happy by the frequent invitations they received to dine 
or sup with '' Grandma Hamilton." The truth of the matter 
was, that Dr. Hamilton was just as proud of his wife's ''fail- 
ings" as he was pleased to designate them. James Noxx 
had never before been permitted to sit down to a well- 
spread table. It was a very attra6live sight for him. The 
elegant tableware, the abundance of good, wholesome food, 
all so tempting and fragrant, gave James a hearty relish for 
his breakfast. However, he could eat but little. The sud- 
den transition from a hovel, where he had endured so much 
suffering by the cruelty of his father, and his almost con- 
stant famishing condition, to an elegant dining-room, at a 
table ''where there was enough and to spare," the kind and 
loving words of Mrs. Hamilton, which reminded him so 
much of his own dear mother, altogether quite overcame 
him. It troubled him to swallow his food, and in spite of 
his efforts, his eyes would fill with tears, which before had 
been bitter, but which now flowed for joy. Mrs. Hamilton 
saw that his heart was troubled, but could not see the cause. 
When breakfast was over she led him| into the library and 
had him sit down on the sofa with her. She took a photo- 
graph album and showed him the pictures of her old 
friends. She told him some amusing incidents of their 
school-days, as they came to mind. As she turned to one 
picture, and before she could speak the name, James ex- 
claimed, excitedly, "That's my mother." Mrs. Hamilton 
replied, " My little man, you are quite mistaken. That pic- 
ture is one of my dear old classmates. We all had our 
pictures taken together the day after we graduated. This 
lady is married and has a beautiful home of her own. She 



196 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

does not live here; she hves in Brooklyn, New York, and I 
am very sure that you are mistaken." James was just as 
sure and positive he was right, as Mrs. Hamilton was sure 
that he was wrong. She asked him if he remembered of 
hearing her name before she was married. James said, 
^^ Yes; it was Helen Jackson." ''Why, that was the name of 
my classmate." Mrs. Hamilton asked him if he remembered 
anything else about his mother. ''Yes; mother had a pic- 
ture-book, just like yours, and she called it her 'class- 
album.' She told me all the names and the stories, just as 
you do. One day father carried it off and sold it to the 
saloon-man for whisky. Mother cried when she found it 
was gone. She went to the saloon-man and asked him for 
it, but he would not let mother have it unless she would 
give him five dollars. Mother did not have any money to 
give him, so he kept it. She had a ring, which she said 
was a 'class-ring.' It had a word on the outside. Mother 
said it was their 'class motto.' Then there were some 
letters on tne inside, 'Mt. and H., and class i8 — .' One 
day mother did not get up, she was so sick. She called me 
to her bedside and said she wanted I should be a good boy 
and remember what she had taught me ; if I was a good 
boy God would take care of me after she was gone, and I 
should go to heaven when I died. Then she cried, and it 
made me cry to see mamma cry. I asked her what made 
her cry so. She said it made her feel so bad to think I 
would not have any home or any one to care for me when 
she was dead. She said if I could only have a good hom.e 
until I was grown up to be a man she would feel satisfied. 
She wanted to give me something to remember her by. 
She took the 'class-ring' out of a Httle box she carried in 
her pocket, and said that if I took good care of it some day 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 197 

it might be a help to me. She told me to be very careful 
with it, for if father saw it he would take it away from me 
and sell it for whisky. I promised her I would keep it 
out of father's sight. The day my mother died I sat by the 
bed and held her hands. She could not speak above a 
whisper. I thought it would make her feel better if I put 
the ring on her finger, and she smiled when she saw what I 
had done. In the afternoon father came home, and I was 
holding mother's hand close in mine, so he could not see 
the ring. He came along and gave me a kick, and said, 
'You lazy scamp, what are you here for; why are you not 
at work at rag-picking?' He kicked me over on my face, 
and before I could get up he saw the ring on mother's hand 
and pulled it from her finger. Mother tried to hold on to 
it, but she was so weak she could not. She tried to speak, 
begging him not to take it away, but he did not pay any 
attention to her. As soon as he got the ring he went right 
out. Mother felt so bad she covered her face, so I might 
not see her cry. I cried, for I was so sorry that I had lost 
the ring, when I told mother I would keep it. It made me 
feel bad, because she saw father take it from her hand. I 
knelt down by the bed-side and took mother's hand in 
mine, and after I had kissed her, I fell asleep. When I 
awoke mother's hand was in mine, and it felt so cold it 
frightened me. I stood up and spoke to mother, but she 
did not answer. I gave her a kiss, and her lips were cold. 
I staid by her all the forenoon, hoping she would wake up. 
In the afternoon a lady came in to get her to do some 
more work. She came up to the bed and looked at mother 
a moment, and then took hold of her hands, and she said, 
'My poor boy, your mother is not asleep; she is dead.'" 
James stopped. His feelings overcame him so that he 



198 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

could not say more. Mrs. Hamilton told him he could go 
out to the stable and see the horses; perhaps the hostler 
could find a sled for him to coast down the alley with. She 
gave him a scarf and a pair of warm mittens, and he was 
well provided for the cold winter morning. 

Dr. Hamilton having completed his professional calls for 
the morning, came in and sat down in his home office to 
''warm up" before dinner. Mrs. Hamilton's thoughts were 
on James and the story he had told of his home and his 
mother. She narrated to her husband the full particulars 
of her showing James the pictures of her old classmates, 
and of his recognizing Helen Jackson as his mother. Dr. 
Hamilton listened very attentively, and when his wife had 
finished, he laid back in his chair and enjoyed a good, 
hearty laugh over the serious turn which she was inclined 
to give to all that James had told her of his history. Dr. 
Hamilton then said, "You have wasted your sympathies 
on worse than the desert air this time. You are altogether 
too tender-hearted for the ' rag-pickers ' and thieves which 
infest Murderer's alley. You might as well go out and talk 
to the northwest wind that is blowing so furiously, as to 
talk to one of these little street arabs, expefting to get 
honest truth out of him. That locality is a regular school 
of vice. Every day in the year they are turning out accom- 
plished graduates, first-class thieves, burglars, and confi- 
dence men. This boy you are so deeply interested in has 
graduated young in years. He was an apt scholar; he 
learned his lesson well. He will make his mark in the 
world if he is allowed to run at large." 

Mrs. Hamilton asked, '' Do6tor, will you explain how it 
was that James should have picked out the picture of my 
old school-mate, Helen Jackson, and have known her name? 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 199 

It was not on the photograph. Then he described our 
class-ring so accurately. It is an unaccountable mystery 
to me, and I wish you would explain it if you can." 

Dr. Hamilton replied, ''It is the simplest thing in the 
world to explain. I can see through this great mystery, as 
you call it, just as plain as I can see through that window- 
pane and see Deacon Giles and the minister riding past in 
a cutter. The fa6l of it is simply this, your friend Helen's 
house has been burglarized, and her album and class- ring, 
among other things, were carried off. The plunder has 
been sent to the 'thieves' exchange,' Murderer's alley. You 
probably are not aware of it, but there are regular organ- 
ized exchanges of stolen goods in all large cities. As, for 
instance, goods stolen in our city may be sent to one of 
these exchanges in New York or Chicago, while goods 
stolen in those cities may be sent here. If your friend 
Helen was living in New York, this accounts for James 
having seen her photograph and ring, her name having 
been stamped in gilt upon the cover; and the artist prob- 
ably penciled ' Helen Jackson ' on the back of the picture 
for his guidance in having the right name upon each album. 
I have not the least doubt that he knows just where to go 
to get those articles. As I infer from what you have said, 
he did not pretend to recognize any other face or give a 
name, only to this one pi6lure out of the thirty-seven in 
your class-album. It is simply a sharp trick of a shrewd, 
sharp, and cunning boy-thief You mark my words, you 
will see how it will come out if the matter is sifted to the 
bottom. I would rather have given a hundred dollars than 
to have had that little rascal come inside this house. He 
will, no doubt, post up his ' pals ' the first opportunity, and 
when we are away or off our guard, they will break in and 



200 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

ransack the house from^ cellar to garret. Supposing you 
give this boy shelter for a week. He may be a paragon of 
perfection — at the same time he would have so learned the 
run of the house and of its occupants that he could post up 
one of the gang, to which he belongs, so that they could 
*work' the house at their pleasure six or twelve months 
hence; or he may to-night unfasten some window or door 
and let in one or more of these 'operators.' The men who 
do this kind of work go thoroughly armed, ready to cut 
any man down who may attempt to interrupt them in their 
movements. It is sure death to one of their gang if he 
shows the white feather — allows himself to be captured 
when he is at his work. I fear you do not comprehend the 
risk you are running, when you allow a beggar to step 
inside the kitchen door. Half of those soap and silver- 
pohsh peddlers who travel from house to house, are simply 
'spies' looking up 'sights,' in thieves' vocabulary. The 
polish peddler just wants to show you what wonderful pol- 
ish he has to sell, so he draws the front door key from the 
lock, and polishes the handle very nicely, just to show the 
contrast and the virtue of his polish. At the same time he 
takes an impression of the key upon a piece of wax he 
holds in the palm of his hand With this impression he has 
a duplicate key made for an accomplice to ' work the house ' 
when the polish peddler may be hundreds of miles away. 
Just think of the amount of plunder they could carry off at 
one haul. A thousand dollars worth could be stowed away 
in one of those big, slouching overcoats that beggars invar- 
iably wear. If you will just take notice, you will never see 
a beggar, man or woman, wearing a close-fitting garment. 
It may look to an unsophisticated person like a mark of 
humility — willing to wear any garment that is given to 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 201 

them, however unbecoming or ill-fitting. It is a kind of 
'professional badge' by which you can judge pretty well 
of the character of the person who applies for charity. 
Gentle sharpers, who dupe bank officials — wholesale forg- 
ers — dress the opposite. They wear the best cloth, made 
up in the latest style. This class have the air of polished 
gentlemen, carry themselves with all the dignity of a ' high 
churchman' — might pass for a minister or bishop. They 
never descend to thieving, house-breaking, or highway rob- 
bery. It is beneath their dignity to steal. Your little pet 
cub, of such lamb-like innocence and meekness, is no doubt 
a well-trained thief, and will make a mark in the profession 
if he is left outside of the reform-school during his minor- 
ity. If I had my say, every boy and girl born in Murder- 
er's alley would be sent to the reform-school before they 
were three years old. In my opinion, the best and only 
way to suppress vice and crime is in its incipient stages. 
Another bad feature of our city government is the employ- 
ment of men for police and night-watchmen who have no 
moral chara6fer; men who are worse than the class whom 
they are hired to prote6l property and persons against. 
Many of them secure a place on the police force simply for 
the purpose of carrying on their nefarious business, or 
allowing their friends and accomplices to work under guar- 
dianship of a city official. If our citizens could but know 
the rascality in this line that is carried on in this city, there 
would be some startling disclosures. Those bold and dar- 
ing wholesale robberies of banks and stores would not be 
veiled in an unaccountable mystery were the fa6ls known. 
New York and Philadelphia have had to remove every 
man on the police force by the damaging discoveries that 
were brought to light by deteftives. This is a crime a 
thousand times worse than being caught asleep on duty." 



202 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

Dr. Hamilton's lefture was listened to very attentively 
by Mrs. Hamilton, and it made a deep impression upon her 
mind. 

She replied that she thought it was our Christian duty to 
exercise charity toward the unfortunate, especially children, 
as they are not responsible for their existence, nor guilty of 
the sins of vicious parents ; even their own sins, committed 
in ignorance, cannot merit the same degree of punishment 
as the crimes of those who are brought up in well-educated 
families. 

Here the discussion was brought to a close by the sound 
of the dinner-bell. 

Dr. Hamilton, however, said, as he arose from his chair, 
'' If I am not right in my judgment as to this boy, I will 
give you the best seal-skin outfit or what-not you can find 
at Hovey's, or anywhere else in Boston, if it costs a thou- 
sand dollars." 

Mrs. Hamilton said, ''AH right; I am now certain of 
having a fur suit for Christmas, if you do not forget that 
promise. I am certain there is a very great mystery hang- 
ing around this boy's life, and I shall not rest satisfied until 
it is fully and satisfactorily explained." 

James came in from the kitchen, and Mrs. Hamilton gave 
him a seat at her side, as at breakfast. His coasting exer- 
cise had painted his cheeks with a rosy hue, and his keen, 
black eyes sparkled with more than usual intelligence for a 
boy of his years. His appetite was excellent, and the din- 
ner relished as a dinner never had before. 

Dr. Hamilton said but little, but kept one eye out for the 
boy. The prolonged 'talk' over his sudden introduction 
into the family, prompted the Do6lor to exercise his skill in 
reading his character and probable history — the Do6lor 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 203 

considering himself something- of an expert on chara6ler- 
reading. Dinner over, Dr. Hamilton told James he might 
go out to the stable and tell the hostler to hitch up the 
'blacks,' as soon as they were through eating. 

Mrs. Hamilton said, " Do6lor, I wish you would, if you 
have time, drive up Washington street, to Messrs. Ticknor 
& Field's book-store, and ask Mr. Field if Mrs. Welling, 
our class historian, still keeps the class records at their 
store. If they are not there, he will know Mrs. Welling's 
address. As we spent three years abroad immediately after 
I graduated, I lost all track of Helen Jackson, not having 
met since we left Mount Holyoke. Alice Weston told me, 
on our return from Europe, that Helen was happily mar- 
ried to a very promising young lawyer, and I think she 
said they were living in Brooklyn, New York. That is all I 
have known of Helen's history for more than fifteen years. 
It does seem so strange that two intimate friends, entering 
the seminary at the same time, and occupying the same 
room for four years, should have so soon forgotten each 
other. We were styled the 'sisters,' owing probably to our 
dressing alike. We had not taken the ' veil,' however. We 
were seldom seen on the street alone or with any other 
student." 

As soon as the Doctor had left and Mrs. Hamilton had 
attended to the household duties, she called James into the 
library to catechize him once more — "cross-examine" him, 
as the lawyers say. She had become thoroughly stirred 
up by the talk she had with the Do6lor before dinner, and 
she plied James with questions in regular lawyer fashion. 
James stood the examination like a well-disciplined expert. 
He stuck to his original statements so persistently that it 
shook the faith of Mrs. Hamilton considerably. She could 



204 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

not help thinking that he had been " drilled" for just such 
an examination — piled it on altogether ''too thick." She 
began to fear that what the Do6lor had said to her before 
dinner might be true. It weighed upon her mind seriously. 
She almost wished she had never heard of the boy, and he 
was back where she found him. 

She was heart-sick as her mind dwelt on the deception 
and base ingratitude that had characterized so many she 
had heretofore tried to befriend. 

Finally Mrs. Hamilton started out on a new line of exam- 
ination. She questioned him as to whether he had any 
brothers or sisters. James said there was a little brother 
and sister, but they died before he was born. ''They died 
one cold night all alone, because mamma was shut up in 
jail. Mamma used to tell me about them. They were 
buried in one coffin. Mamma always cried when she told 
me about little brother and sister, and that made me cry, 
too." 

Tears began to show themselves in James's eyes, and he 
stopped, and taking from his pocket a little round pill-box 
and removing the cover, took out a slip, evidently cut from 
a New York paper, and handing it to Mrs. Hamilton, said, 
"That tells all about it." 

It was headed: ''Boston Red -Tape — Two Beautiful 
Childreyi Frozen to Death — A Scene in the Boston Police- 
Courtr We omit the court proceedings. We will let the 
reporter describe the home and what he saw there : 

"We were hurrying down State street to the custom- 
house to see a friend off for Europe, when we were halted 
by Officer Grew, and asked to go with him to see a sight. 
We bid our friend a hasty and hearty good-bye, and fol- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 205 

lowed the officer. He led us down Broad street and turned 
into a narrow alley, and at the second or third door stepped 
in, and led the way up three flights of rickety stairs and 
entered a low attic room. It was lighted with a single dor- 
mer-window. The room and its condition showed it was a 
home where poverty and deprivation of every comfort of 
living were painfully manifested. A woman was kneeling 
beside a low bed in the wildest of agony. Her eyes had 
a wild, maniac glare about them. They were tearless. 
She was constantly wringing her hands, and it seemed 
as though she would twist them ofl" or her wrists out of 
joint. A low moan, and then a shriek of the wildest frenzy, 
exclaiming, '' I cannot go with you ; I must go home. My 
little children are sick, and they will die before morning 
if you do not let me go to them. Help! O, help! I will 
not go and leave them to die." Then exhausted, she sank 
down into a seeming unconscious state, which would last 
fifteen or twenty minutes, when a similar wild frenzy would 
come on. Upon the bed were two beautiful children, a boy 
of five and a girl of three, locked in each other's arms, and 
death had placed his seal upon those sweet faces. It was 
a sight for an artist. We wished for the power to have 
wrought those lovely faces into marble. A finer model 
never was set for an artist. Their bodies were frozen stiff' 
and could not be separated. They were placed in the 
coffin just as they were found." 

Dr. Hamilton called at Ticknor & Field's store on his 
way home. Mr. Fields informed him that Mrs. Welling, 
the class historian, had the day before sent for the records. 
She had to prepare a report for the coming anniversary, 
and desired to have them at home where she could work 
upon it at her leisure. Mrs. Welling's address was Provi- 
14— 



206 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

dence, Rhode Island. Mrs. Hamilton lost no time in ad- 
dressing a note to Mrs. Welling to learn of Helen Jackson. 

Mrs. Welling responded promptly, and this is what she 
said in reply to Mrs. Hamilton's note of inquiry : 

''My Dear Mrs. Hamilton: — You do not know how 
glad I was to receive a letter this morning from a dear old 
classmate. I only wished you had come in the place of the 
letter. Would we not have had a good long 'chat' over 
our school-days at the seminary? I have just been longing 
to see some one of our old class. Why cannot you come 
and make me a good visit. Come and stay a week, at 
least. By the way, you must 'not forget our reunion next 
June; you know we all agreed to return to our alma mater 
on the twentieth anniversary of our graduation. 

" I often try to imagine how we all shall look after twenty 
years of separation. As I look forward, how long, yet how 
short, when numbered with the past. I wonder if I shall 
know you, and if you would know me. Old Father Time 
has laid his hand heavily upon me. I am not that ' lively 
girl' who used to cut up so many 'pranks,' and keep the 
teachers in a ' peck of trouble ' over a little rebellion that 
seemed ever on the eve of an open revolt, and then poor I 
was so seriously suspected of having a hand in the plot, if 
not of being its leader. I wonder! Didn't I enjoy seeing 
little Miss Smart get into a towering rage over some little 
insignificant misdemeanor of a pupil. 

" Well, those days have passed, and now I am very much 
of an old lady. Yes, there are several who call me ' Grandma 
Welling.' So now you will have to put your wits to work 
to imagine how the ' old lady ' who is now addressing you 
will look next June. I have my mind's eye on a little ' Miss 
Gowing,' who forever wanted to be going just where she 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 207 

couldn't — over the fence into tempting fields of exploration 
— all because she was fenced in, hedged in, by the inexor- 
able rules of the institution. No 'fibs' now. How that 
* humble pie' did relish. But I hear you say. Sister, I have 
a text for you, which is this, ' I do remember my faults this 
day.' That is right. It is a good thing to do. 

''We shall not meet all of our old classmates there. Our 
ranks have been sadly broken. Death has not been idle, 
and several have fallen by the way. Having been chosen 
necrologist, I have a sad, very sad, duty to perform. I 
dread it; I dread to read the record. Several of the flower 
of the class will be missing. Helen Jackson, of whom you 
inquire, was one of the loveliest members of our class. She 
possessed rare graces. Her modesty and kindness were of 
the heart. Her sympathy was strong and deep for any 
member of the class who might be sick or needed assist- 
ance in any way. She was always ready to respond to any 
call for help. She was admirably fitted to grace any soci- 
ety she chose to enter. I did envy her talents and the 
bright future that opened up before her so auspiciously. It 
was wicked and I knew it. I have repented of that sin of 
covetousness. How little we know what sore disappoint- 
ments are allotted to our friends! As I know how deep 
Helen had to drink of the bitterest cup ever placed to the 
lips of any one, I cannot be too grateful that my fortune 
was not hers. I wish I were as good as she was. 

" I will give you a hasty reminiscence of Helen's life in 
this, hoping to make it much fuller in my historical report 
for the June anniversary. 

" Helen married, soon after graduating, to Joseph How- 
ard Noxx, a very promising young lawyer. He ranked 
high in his profession. Few lawyers at the Suffolk bar 



208 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

gained so prominent a position in so brief a time. His 
services were in constant demand, not only professionally, 
but he was sought for on many public occasions. As a 
speaker, few were his equals — he was a fine orator. His 
success was his ruin. He took a ' social glass' now and 
then. The wine club next became his resort. Then came 
negleft of business. As business fell off his dissipation 
increased. His friends induced him to change his location, 
hoping that by breaking away from his too fast friends, he 
might start anew. He removed to New York city. His 
professional reputation went with him. Business came fast, 
unsoHcited, and so did the tempter. The appetite for liquor 
had got a firm hold upon him, and he could not overcome 
it. He drank freely. The wine club was his daily resort. 
Business disappeared. Men of wealth would not commit 
their interests to the hands of an attorney who would jeop- 
ordize them by his habits of dissipation. He had sold him- 
self to that inexorable tyrant — whisky. His beautiful home 
was stripped of its elegant furnishings ; .he had to abandon 
it for a less desirable one. He had to change his dwelling- 
place often. Each change was for the worse. He returned 
to Boston, his wife still clinging to him with all the devo- 
tion that characterizes a true woman. She never lost hope. 
She tried every way possible to reclaim him. Her efforts 
were futile. In his sober moments he bewailed the sad 
wreck he had made of himself. In vain did he resolve and 
re-resolve, and promise in the most earnest and solemn 
manner, never, no never, to drink another drop of liquor. 
The appetite was the master, and he was the slave bound in 
bands stronger than iron. His wife took in washing to earn 
bread for herself and children. There were two beautiful 
ones, a little boy of five and a little girl of three years. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 209 

They were taken sick with the croup. One Saturday morn- 
ing she needed medicine for the children and coal to last 
over Sunday. She gave her husband three dollars, all the 
money she had, to get the medicine, and buy coal with the 
balance. He was sober, and promised most faithfully that 
he would get the medicine and purchase the coal, and not 
visit any saloon, and return as soon as possible. Noon 
came, and he was still absent. The children were growing 
worse for the need of the medicine. The coal was reduced 
to a bucketful. Mrs. Noxx became exceedingly anxious 
over the situation. It was a cold night, and was growing 
colder. She had no neighbors. They were living in an 
attic in a block used for storage. Not another person 
roomed in the building. Mrs. Noxx was in still greater 
distress. It was midnight, the fire had gone out, and the 
cold was intense. Water was freezing in the room. The 
children were suffering intensely. The mother was help- 
less to alleviate their terrible sufferings. She needed hot 
water to prepare warm drinks, and hot cloths to bandage 
their throats, that they might breathe with less difficulty. 
What could she do at the dead hour of night? Not a friend 
was near whom she could call upon for assistance. She was 
in a terrible dilemma. She could not sit by her darlings 
and see them die without making one effort to save them, 
even if she could not save them. She tucked them in as 
well as she could, and putting on a shawl and taking 
a bag, she hurried down to a boat-yard, where she had 
often been before, to get chips and shavings. She had 
not gone more than two or three squares before she dis- 
covered a watchman following her. She tried to keep 
out of his sight. She was near a lumber-yard, and went 
in and hid behind a pile of lumber. The watchman fol- 



210 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

lowed her, and searched until he found her hiding-place. 
He asked her what she was there for, and ordered her to 
' come along.' She went with him to the street, and told 
him why she was out at that hour of the night. He replied 
that he had heard too many such yarns ; she would have to 
go to the lock-up with him. She said if he would go to 
her home, and if he did not find her little children sick and 
dying for want of care, then she would go readily with him 
to the lock-up. He would not listen to her pleadings. She 
refused to go. He sprang his rattle for help. Another offi- 
cer came to his aid. She pleaded with him. He told her 
to 'shut up,' she was going to the lock-up, and the judge 
would settle her case Monday morning. They dragged her 
to the lock-up, although it would not have been a square 
out of their way to have gone by her home. At the lock- 
up the officer in charge was deaf to all her pleadings, and 
threatened to place her in the dungeon if she didn't stop 
her 'talking' and keep quiet. The sequel to this terrible 
outrage was published in the city papers at the time. I 
enclose a slip, which please return when you have done 
with it. 

'' It would seem that her cup of sorrow was more than 
full. That nature must have yielded to the terrible strain. 
Years of accumulated sorrow was hers to suffer, to endure. 
Her husband sank lower and lower, and partook more of 
brute nature than of the human. Liquor had burned out 
the last vestige of his manhood. Another son was born to 
suffer untold miseries. The mother died a little more than 
a year ago. By a late paper I noticed the father had died 
in the gutter. A poor orphan boy is left to battle with life 
alone. For the mother's sake I wish that he could be 
placed in some good home. What a sad life was Helen's ! 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 211 

That our valedi6lorian should have had such a fate seems 
incredible. Surely those whose path seemed the brightest 
at the start often prove it may turn to the blackest shades 
of night." 

Mrs. Hamilton was now fully convinced that Helen was 
James's mother, and the story that he had told her as to 
his mother was true in every particular. However, to sat- 
isfy the doftor, she wrote again to Mrs. Welling to know if 
there were any additional particulars of evidence whereby 
she could be doubly assured as to the identity of James. 

Mrs. Welling, in answer, wrote : 

'*My Dear Mrs. Hamilton: — As to the identity of 
James, the boy you have with you, there is not the least 
difficulty in settling that beyond a doubt. The city phy- 
sician is an old friend of my husband, and through him I 
learned the particulars I gave in my first letter. The city 
physician was here last week, and taking up a photograph 
of a very ragged boy, wished to know how that came to be 
in my collection of photographs. He then gave me the 
particulars of that boy's mother. Had it not been for him 
we never should have known of her last days. Helen kept 
all her griefs locked in her own bosom. My daughter was 
attending the art school in Boston. The teacher wanted 
several boys for models, and requested the pupils when- 
ever they found a good specimen to bring him in. My 
daughter was out for a walk one day, and she took a stroll 
along the wharves, and she discovered some half a dozen 
boys, like bees, around a sugar hogshead, feasting them- 
selves on the sweetness that was clinging around the sides 
of the cask. It occured to her that ' here are some choice 
specimens.' She made arrangements with the entire lot to 
go up with her to the school. Six 'sugar-coated' boys 



2 1 2 RENTS NE W COMMENTAR Y. 

accompanied her to the art rooms. The teachers were 
dehghted with the specimens. My daughter having been 
the only successful one in securing ' models,' was allowed 
to choose her boy. He was so comically dressed and had 
such fine features, and fearing if she let him go she never 
could catch him again, she took him to a photograph gal- 
lery and had his likeness taken just as he was — sugar and 
all. She wrote his name on the back of the photograph, 
and the city physician recognized the boy at once. Now, I 
am going to enclose the photograph in this letter, and if 
James remembers these fa6ls about it you may rest assured 
that you have found Helen's motherless boy." 

JAMES NOXX'S HOME. 

The home in which James Noxx was born, and in which 
he passed his early childhood, was one from which most 
boys would have recoiled with fear and horror, and indeed 
James himself recoiled from it when he thought of the suf- 
fering which he had witnessed and experienced there. Yet 
to it he turned as his home, because he had no knowledge 
of any other, and because in it, in the midst of its wretch- 
edness and repulsiveness, there was one attraftion — his 
mother. But she could not make it a heaven on earth, 
where the demon of the whisky-bottle was the despotic 
tyrant which ruled the house and held in chains the 
inmates. That demon was the absolute monarch, and there 
enthroned, his mandates had to be respefted and obeyed or 
dire vengeance was administered without mercy upon those 
who dared to question his authority. 

James's father was a dissipated man and a notorious 
drunkard. None but those who have learned by bitter 
experience can know what a drunkard's home is like, what 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 213 

disgrace and untold misery it brings upon the family, 
isolating them from all decent society, depriving them 
of every social relation and its enjoyments — cutting them 
off from assistance and sympathy of friends and neigh- 
bors when most needed. We do pity the drunkard's 
wife and children, who are the innocent victims of a 
drunken father, the helpless ones upon whom falls the curse 
of his prote6ling care. It would be difficult to find a boy 
who began life with worse circumstances or more unfavor- 
able surroundings than those that environed James Noxx. 
His early life was one of extreme hardship. There was no 
sunshine along the way to make it bright and cheerful; 
there was little to gladden his heart in all these years. Al- 
though he had so good a mother, she could not lift the 
cruel burden that was crushing the very life-blood from her 
bleeding heart, and was powerless to relieve James from the 
cruel bondage he was bound down to. 

Her heart went out in loving sympathy for James, and 
she did all she could to lighten his burdens ^nd soothe his 
troubled soul. The happy days of boyhood, so full of 
childish sports, free from all care, were unknown to him — 
blotted out of his early experience. His pathway was ever 
shrouded in the deepest gloom ; it was a rough and thorny 
road for his tender feet. His little heart was made to bleed, 
pierced by the cruel shafts of the arch enemy to all happi- 
ness — that remorseless demon of the bottle. It had trans- 
formed one of the best of fathers into that demon which 
had robbed a home of all that makes it a home of delight 
and happiness. 

It had ruined and brought his father down from the high- 
est position to the gutter. It robbed him of a lucrative law 
practice ; it ruined a happy home ; it killed one of the best 



214 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

of wives, a fond mother; it compelled the poor unfortunate 
man to sacrifice everything upon the altar of the appetite 
which controlled him — the bright prospers before him, his 
good reputation, his family, his friends, all — everything 
went to satisfy the demands of the insatiate demon — thirst. 
To it he had surrendered his manhood, his humanity. 
Whisky had burned out of his generous nature every 
noble impulse. 

James never knew what it was to have a sober father, for 
it was rare for him to be free from the influence of whisky. 
He was cross and brutal at all times. He had no more pity 
for his family than a starving hyena has for its prey. De- 
void of paternal feeling, he was more remorseless than 
the grave. James's life was made one of extreme hardship. 
Heavy burdens were laid upon his young shoulders, too 
heavy for a boy of tender years. He was compelled to go 
in all weathers upon the street to pick up rags. It was no 
pleasing task for a boy of his years to be associated with 
professional ** rag-pickers" — street arabs. There was the 
*' rag-picker's union," and they wanted no interlopers in the 
field, especially if the new-comer was not of their kin. The 
field was already assigned and occupied by the members of 
the rag-picker's union. There was no escape for James; 
the stern and imperative orders of a heartless father forced 
him upon the streets, and once there, he was compelled to 
endure treatment scarcely less inhuman than that inflicted 
by his father. 

Rag-pickers, as a class, belong to the lowest stratum of 
fallen humanity. Consequently they are a representative 
class, little less than convi6led criminals of the worst grade 
— professional thieves. The rag-picker's union was a mo- 
nopoly. James was compelled to respe6l their arrogant 



RENTS NE W CO MM EN TAR Y. 215 

demands and assumed rights. If he found a good field to 
prospe6l in, he was ordered off. If he did not go, they 
would club him until he did. They took special delight in 
tormenting him in every way they possibly could ; accused 
him of stealing some of their plunder for a pretext to exam- 
ine his bag, then steal his rags, bag and all. If he com- 
plained they would beat him most cruelly. So the poor 
boy was abused day after day by these street arabs. Yet a 
worse ordeal awaited him when he returned home at night. 
If his complement of rags failed to satisfy his father's ex- 
pe6lations, he was rewarded by a severe reprimand, and 
frequently a cruel flogging followed. Bowed down with 
the sorrows of his hard lot, his heart ready to burst with 
anguish, and giving vent to his pent-up feelings in floods of 
tears, provoked his inhuman father to heap upon him his 
anathemas for the tears he could not repress. It was 
enough to chill the ambition and aspirations of a young 
life. Such are some of the woes that come to many a boy 
who has a drunken father. 

How could a boy with all the evil influences of low and 
vicious associates abroad and the brutal treatment and vile 
example of a drunken father, fail to become a wicked man, 
a curse to himself, a nuisance in society, and a burden to 
the state. 

The way to ruin is easy. The home influences are so 
woven into the web of life that they stamp the charafter for 
good or ill. Influences which are liable to become indel- 
ibly impressed upon the young, plastic nature, and as 
enduring as if they were chiselled into adamantine rock. 
Influence is eternal. What fearful responsibility rests upon 
the home ! 

All the proceeds of James's labor went for whisky. All 



216 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

the household furniture, piece by piece, went for whisky. 
All his wife's clothing that James's father could get hold of, 
all her little mementoes and precious keep-sakes, every- 
thing the saloon-keeper would take in exchange, or would 
receive on "pawn," went for whisky — to the last loaf of 
bread when his wife and child were famishing. 

At last death entered that home. Death is no respeftor 
of persons. He enters the hovel and the palace alike. He 
has no regard for high or low; position or condition are 
not considerations which govern that grim guest. 

James's mother was dead. The best and only friend he 
had in the world. She died of a broken heart, negleft, and 
starvation. For days there was not a morsel of food fit for 
a sick woman or the price of a loaf of bread in that miser- 
able abode. She died and was buried while the husband 
was away on a drunken spree. When he returned and 
found his wife missing — dead and buried — he had no 
regrets, no tears to shed. Whisky and how to get it was 
his all-absorbing thought. He concerned himself about 
nothing beyond. 

After James's mother died a heavier burden was his to 
carry. He had no one to care for him or to sympathize 
with him in his loneliness, in his new-found grief, although 
before he and his mother had often gone supperless to bed ; 
yet she never would let James suffer hunger when they 
had anything to eat. She would deny herself rather than 
that he should want. There never was a surplus on their 
table. James's father was ever waiting for the last cent of 
his daily earnings. He had to get nis food the best he 
could. The drunkard's food is all in whisky. James occa- 
sionally found small pieces of money, or something for 
which he would obtain a small compensation. With the 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, • 217 

money he bought bread. He would not beg, and when 
the gnawings of hunger could not be appeased, he resorted 
to the slop-pails and barrels upon the street, filled every 
morning with the waste and refiise that came firom the well- 
spread tables of those who never know want or hunger. It 
was often a strife between the city scavengers, the half- 
starved and worthless curs, and James, as to who had the 
best right to ''fish" in those filthy receptacles, filled with 
slops of the kitchen. It was his last resort to satisfy the 
cravings of hunger. Such were some of the trials of James 
Noxx in his boyhood. 

Mrs. Hamilton was a good mother to James. After she 
learned that his own mother was her dear, old classmate, 
she took a deeper interest in James's welfare. After three 
years of trial James became the adopted son of the Hamil- 
ton's, taking the place of an only son who died a hero — a 
martyr — rather than a breath of suspicion should tarnish 
his good name. James grew up to be a good m.an, filled 
many offices of trust, and died mourned by all who were 
so fortunate as to have his acquaintance. 

Years ago a New Orleans merchant was in Boston on 
business. His only companion was a dog. The merchant 
was taken sick, died, and was buried in that " Beautiful City 
of the Dead," Mount Auburn. The faithful dog was the 
solitary mourner. He watched his master's grave day and 
night. Lying down upon the grave, nothing could induce 
him to leave it, and there he died of grief A fac simile of 
the dog was cut in marble and placed over the grave of his 
master. Not far away is a family enclosure. In the centre 
is a marble column. Just at the right of the column James 
was laid to rest. The family name is on the shaft, but it is 
not ''Hamilton^ 



218 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

A LESSON FROM THE NOXX FAMILY. 

We have introduced the Noxx family to our readers for 
a special obje6t. First, to impress upon young men the 
fearful risk there is in the least indulgence — imbibing the 
"first glass" of the ''accursed stuff," liquid fire. 

The story of the rise and fall of Joseph Howard Noxx is 
only one of a thousand who have made the same fatal mis- 
take by consenting to take a ''social glass" to please a 
friend. That cowardly fear of giving offense is what ruined 
Mr. Noxx, and has, and is, ruining young men by hun- 
dreds, by thousands — those who have not the moral cour- 
age to stand up in their manhood and say "no." 

'The other consideration which we wish to make most 
emphatic is, that however degrading and humiliating it 
may be to own a drunken fether, it is not your fault, your 
sin, unless you follow in the footsteps of your father; that 
it does not prevent or debar such a young man from rising 
above the most unfortunate circumstances and the most 
miserable surroundings imaginable, if he but wills it-^ 
makes up his mind that he will be a man. 

For they conquer who believe they can. — Dry den. 

There are scores of instances on record where the sons 
of drunkards, who, having had the misfortune of a life-long 
example, with all its debasing influences, as well as an 
hereditary thirst for liquor, to overcome, yet have made for 
themselves an honored record. We could give the name 
of a distinguished gentleman who has filled many import- 
ant public offices, and who is now enjoying an income of 
twenty-five thousand dollars a year, whose early home was 
that of a drunkard. His father was an old toper — cared 
nothing for his family or friends. Whisky he considered 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 219 

his best friend and boon companion; to keep company 
with it was his sole ambition, while the family were sorely 
pinched with poverty, being almost daily on the borders of 
starvation. 

I dare do all that may become a man ; who dares do more is none. 

— Shakspeare, 

Another instance is of a gentleman who was the son of a 
poor dissipated father. The son was "apprenticed out" to 
learn a trade, and the small pittance he received went to 
buy rum for his father. Many a time was that son com- 
pelled to look upon that father lying in the filth of the gut- 
ter, dead drunk. It gave the son the horrors, and made 
him set his face like a flint against rum and rum -dealers. 
He rose up in his manhood — boyhood — with a fixed pur- 
pose, with an invincible determination, that he would rise 
above his unfortunate condition and become a man. He 
gave himself to hard study, spending his evenings in the 
solitude of his own chamber, with his books, acquiring 
useful knowledge. Step by step he worked his way along 
until he reached the highest position in the gift of his native 
state — its governor. He went to congress, and was elefted 
speaker of the house of representatives. Many other offices 
of responsibility he filled with honor. Let no one say 
that, "My lot is a hard one;" "I am bound down by unto- 
ward circumstances;" "There is no hope for me;" "My 
burden is too heavy for me to carry;" "All these things 
are against me ; " "I might as well give up first as last;" 
" My untimely entrance upon life blighted every prospect, 
closed every avenue against me, and what's the use of my 
trying to rise above the unhappy condition of my inheri- 
tance, my birth-right? " If for once you allow such thoughts 
to weigh upon your mind, you peril the mighty possibilities 



220 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

which are within your grasp, if you will it. Giving away to 
the ''blues" will not make a man of you, or bring you to 
the greatest good. Study carefully the lives of other heroes 
who have made themselves heroes by lifting themselves out 
of the mire and low surroundings, to ''stand before kings." 
The highway to success is hedged up to no one who 
dares to be a man. Young man, look up, not down. 

Fortune befriends the bold. - — Dryden. 



HAPPY HOMES. 

A WIFE. 

There is a magic in that little word, — it is a mystic circle that surrounds com- 
forts and virtues never known beyond its hallowed limits. — Southey. 

I want (who does not want?) a wife, — 

Affectionate and fair ; 
To solace all the woes of life, 

And all its joys to share. 
Of temper sweet, of yielding will, 

Of firm, yet placid mind, — 
With all my faults to love me still, 

With sentiment refined. 

— John Quincy Adams. 

Every young man needs a home of his own. If he is 
wise he will in due time have one. The sooner he makes 
up his mind to that fact, the better it will be for him. A 
home should be the best place on earth. A delightful re- 
treat to which to fly when the day's labors are over; where 
the cares and perplexities of business find no lodging-place. 
If a home is not pleasant, the husband will seek other places 
to spend his evenings. We know of men who belong to 
every lodge, club, and society there is to belong to, and 
are ready to watch with a "sick brother" once a week. 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY. 221 

simply because the house they eat and sleep in is not a 
home. It is wonderful how long a '' sick brother " needs 
watchers, how he holds on to life. We have known of 
that sick brother for a quarter of a century; we heard of 
him before we came to the west; and he "still lives." He 
never will die until the last man of the last club and lodge 
is dead and buried. 

A New Hampshire woman has a husband who is ad- 
dicted to joining secret societies. One of her exasperated 
outbursts is thus reported, "Jine! He'd jine anything. 
There can't nothing come along that's dark and sly and 
hidden, but he'll jine it. If anybody should get up a so- 
ciety to burn his house down, he'd jine it just as soon as 
he could get in, and if he had to pay to get in he'd go all 
the suddener." 

To have a happy home there must be a similarity of 
tastes between husband and wife, a congeniality of desires 
and aspirations. If the husband is an ignoramus, and the 
wife a lady of refinement and culture, there will not be 
much social enjoyment around the evening lamp. 

The Arabs have a tradition that the human race was cre- 
ated in halves, and each half sent out traveling around the 
world to find its other half, and if the right half was found, 
happiness was the inevitable result. If the wrong one was 
selected — two odd halves — there was no match and no 
happiness. 

A young man is very unwise to seek to enter into society 
that he has no relish for, and cannot enjoy. True aspira- 
tion to rise above one's natural surroundings is very com- 
mendable; but to aspire to move in society entirely beyond 
one's capacity for enjoyment would only make him misera- 
ble. A man would be foolish to run after a railroad train 
15— 



222 KENT'S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

that he never could overtake. Equally foolish is it for him 
to try to enter into society to which he cannot and never 
will attain. This excludes no one from enjoying happiness 
to his fullest capacity. If you wish to rise above your fel- 
lows, you have something to do. Hard work and constant 
study will bring any man into a higher and better life. Bea- 
consfield did not reach his place as chief premier of Eng- 
land by indolence, or by waiting for luck to elevate him to 
that high position. Far from*it. He belonged to the ''de- 
spised race" — was a Jew; and even after he took his seat in 
parliament, was "hissed" down on his first speech. They 
do not hiss at him now. There is a preparation process re- 
quired of every one who wishes to rise above his environ- 
ment. If he is not willing to submit to the drill, he cannot 
expecS promotion. 

FALLING IN LOVE. 

Never marry but for love, but see that thou lovest what is lovely. 

— William Penn. 

Falling in love and marrying at sight is just as good as 
a prolonged courtship, provided it should prove to be a 
happy union. A man in the state of Michigan recently fell 
in love with a young lady and married her on the same 
day. She was not inclined to say more than ''yes," or 
"no," and he attributed it to her modesty. It increased 
the value of the prize for him. He was economical, and 
was quite satisfied with getting a wife with no lost time 
at courting, or in neckties ; but, unfortunately for him, he 
quickly changed his mind, when he found his neck was 
tied with a tie he could not untie. He had married a fool- 
ish girl — an idiot. 

A few days ago a young lady in Illinois said she would 
be married in fifteen minutes if she could find the man. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 223 

A friend happened to know a "fifteen minute" man and 
brought him in, and they were married. A fifteen minute 
courtship is just as good, or better, than a fifteen year 
courtship, if the right halves make the match. If they 
should not match, what then? It is dangerous business to 
fall in love at sight. Better go slow. 

We commend the prudence of the young man in the 
state of Connecticut, who, after he had courted his lady- 
love seven years, asked her, " Nellie, dear, do you think it 
would be improper or wrong for us now to exchange a 
kiss?" We presume she did not. 

We read of a man who fell in love with a 'Mummy" in a 
show window. We think it was not reciprocated, conse- 
quently no harm came of it. 

A young lady who was rescued from a watery grave, and 
when restored to her senses declared she would marry her 
rescuer, at all hazards, was not a little taken back to learn 
that it w^as a New Foundland dog that had saved her life. 

All matches are not made in heaven Those that have a 
good deal of fire and brimstone in their composition are 
not made there. Green hands cannot exercise too much 
caution about fooling with dangerous compounds. Some of 
these unequal matches ''go off," and somebody gets hurt. 

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS 

I chose my wife, as she did her wedding-gown, for qualities that would wear 
well. — Gdldsmitli. 

In the choice of a partner a young man should exercise 
the same prudence and caution that he would in any other 
business relation. It comes right down to that with all sen- 
sible persons. Every one should go about it in a straight- 
forward way, and not go sneaking around as though he was 
ashamed of his job, or was going to do some mean thing. 



224 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

When a man of business enters into a copartnership he 
goes into it intelUgently, consults those who can advise 
him, and can judge whether it would be a good move for 
him. After obtaining all the advice and the best counsel, 
he exercises his best judgment before he commits himself. 
A life partnership is of vastly more importance than a 
mere business partnership. One is for life, the other may 
be terminated at any time, or at any specified time. A 
young man cannot be too careful about forming a life-part- 
nership. His whole Hfe is to be modified. It is the greatest 
event that will ever come to him. He needs therefore to 
exercise the utmost care and caution in sele^ing a life-part- 
ner. Because a lady can sing, and play the piano well, or 
has a pretty face, dances gracefully, has a fine flow of lan- 
guage, reads French, sings in Italian, and dreams in Span- 
ish, and has all the showy accomplishments of a fashionable 
young lady, it does not follow that she is a proper helpmate 
for a young man. Splendid parlor ornaments may capti- 
vate, and lead young men to decide thoughtlessly by such 
exhibitions of showy talents, but they are very certain to 
bring disappointment and miserable homes. 

THE MODERN BELLE. 

She sits in a fashionable parlor, 

And rocks in her easy-chair ; 
She is clad in her silks and satins, 

And jewels are in her hair ; 
She winks and giggles and simpers, 

And simpers and giggles and winks ; 
And though she talks but little, 

'Tis a great deal more than she thinks. 

She lies in bed in the morning 

Till near the hour of noon, 
Then comes down snapping and snarling 

Because she was called so soon ; 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 225 

Her hair is still in papers, 

Her cheeks still fresh with paint — 
Remains of her last nights blushes, 

Before she intended to faint. 
******* 
She falls in love with a fellow 

Who swells with a foreign air ; 
He marries her for her money, 

She marries him for his hair ; 
One of the very best matches — 

Both are well-mated in life ; 
She^s got a fool for a husband^ 

He's got a fool for a wife I 

— Stark. 

There are society girls and home girls. The former 
appear best abroad — they are the girls who are good for 
parties, visits, balls, etc., whose chief delight is in such 
things. The latter are the kind that appear best at home 
— the girls who are cheerful and useful in the dining-room, 
the sick-room, and the precin6ls of home. They differ 
widely in character. One is frequently a torment at home ; 
the other is a blessing. One is a moth, consuming every- 
thing about her; the other is a sunbeam, inspiring with life 
and goodness all who come within her influence. Now it 
does not necessarily follow that there must be two classes 
of girls. The right education would modify both of them 
a little, and unite their characters in one. 

There are other accomplishments of much greater value 
to a young man who has to depend upon his own labor for 
a living. A "society lady" would be out of place in his 
home. Such a wife would be miserable unless in the whirl- 
pool of excitement, giving or attending fashionable parties 
weekly, and would not add to his happiness. A wife who 
is ignorant of the entire household duties, who is not mis- 
tress of every department, is not qualified to take charge 
of her home. We hear young ladies, even married ladies, 
boast that they do not know how to prepare a dinner. For 



226 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

a rich man, with plenty of servants, it is all very well. He 
can afford it. A wasteful house-keeper will ruin any young 
man. If a young- lady has been accustomed to extrava- 
gance, plenty of everything to do with, and to spend, it 
will be one of the hardest lessons for her to learn, if ever 
learned, when necessity compels her to exercise economy. 

GOOD HOUSE-KEEPERS ARE A RARITY. 

To be a neat house-keeper, a first-class cook, without 
wastefulness, is a rare gift. The French people excel in 
making the best out of the least and poorest material. Our 
line of business has allowed us unusual privileges of know- 
ing how all classes of people live. We have been from 
cellar to attic in a thousand homes. We could tell some 
shocking tales about the way some homes are kept among 
the bon ton. We have seen a lady on the street, dressed 
like a queen, in her silks and satins, whose piano was cov- 
ered with dust so thick you could not tell what wood it was 
made of; have seen the same lady, with one swoop of her 
arm, attempt to sweep the dust off, all in her street costume 
of silks. We have been into a costly mansion, costing fifty 
thousand dollars to build, where a square yard of pedigree, 
elegantly framed, was hanging on the wall in the hall, and 
the lady in silks reclining on an elegant sofa in the parlor. 
The dining-room and the kitchen were so dirty and filthy 
that it disgusted us to look around. At the door were 
thrown out to the dogs, nice cake, rich cuts of beef, large 
loaves of bread, etc., all spoiled in baking. Still the square 
yard of pedigree hung on the wall in the front hall. We 
passed through the chambers and saw even greater sights. 
We saw the labors of numerous spiders, elaborate festoons 
that graced every corner — the delicate network sweeping 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 227 

across from corner to corner, ornamented with the ''dust of 
ages." The square yard of pedigree hung on the wall in 
the front hall all the same. We came to the conclusion that 
a square yard of pedigree in the front hall was not a di- 
ploma for superior house-keeping accomplishments. Don't 
go too much on "pedigree." ^ 

A good education — the very best that can be secured — 
is a very desirable accomplishmxcnt for a young lady. But 
when she knows more of French than she does of domestic 
economy, in our opinion she has too much education to fill 
the place of a good housewife. It is not necessary that she 
do all the hard drudgery of the kitchen, but that all the 
appointments of the kitchen may be properly carried out, 
economically as well as hygienically, is a science superior 
to all the knowledge found' in books. The knowledge of 
French or Italian will not guarantee good bread or light 
biscuit, or cook a beefsteak to a turn. It is an indepen- 
dent branch of education, and one's health and happiness 
are dependent upon the way the food is prepared every day 
and three times each day. It is what we eat that makes us 
hearty, robust, and strong, or weak and puny. A thousand 
ills are to be averted or endured by the way food is pre- 
pared in the kitchen. Charging up to providence, sick- 
ness, indigestion, dyspepsia, and other kindred ills, is simply 
wickedness, when all these ills are the dire6t results of vil- 
lainous cooking. The most nutritious and easily digested 
food may be converted into the most unwholesome and 
indigestible, by the carelessness and ignorance of the cook. 
If you wish to avoid expense, waste, sickness, do6for's bills, 
etc., you must have the very best information obtainable on 
the subject. 

We are very glad to know that the subjeft has been 



228 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

recently brought before the pubhc, and schools are being 
established, and are becoming quite popular, where the 
very best instructions and practice are given in the science 
of cooking. That it has been committed so long to the 
hands of the lowest and most ignorant class of servants to 
prepare the daily food for the family, is one of the myste- 
rious problems which we cannot solve on any enlightened 
hypothesis to us known. The only good that comes from 
it is, that it affords the do6lors, druggists, and undertakers 
much better incomes. It would be too bad to let them die 
for want of business. So their patients are sick and die that 
they may live. The cooks are in league with the doctors. 

WHAT IOWA GIRLS ARE TAUGHT. 

At the Iowa agricultural college every girl in the junior 
class has learned how to make good bread — weighing and 
measuring her ingredients, mixing, kneading, and baking, 
and regulating her fire. Each has also been taught to 
make yeast and make biscuit, pudding, pies, and cakes of 
various kinds ; how to cook a roast, broil a steak, and make 
a fragrant cup of coffee; how to stuff and roast a turkey, 
make oyster-soup, prepare a stock for other soups, steam 
and mash potatoes so that they will melt in the mouth, and 
in short, to get up a first-class meal, combining both sub- 
stantial and fancy dishes, in good style. Theory and man- 
ual skill have gone hand in hand. If there is anything that 
challenges the unlimited respe6l and devotion of the mas- 
culine mind it is ability in woman to order well her own 
household. 

Perhaps our readers may ask what this has to do with 
''love, courtship, and happy homes." It has everything to 
do with it. No man can be happy if he has to eat sole- 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 229 

leather, fried in burnt grease, or eat bread that is as indi- 
gestible as pig-lead. A good, healthy body cannot be kept 
in running order whenever laden with a great burden that 
is daily reducing its strength, sapping its life blood. When 
a bank has to draw daily on its capital to meet running 
expenses, it is only a matter of time how long it can con- 
tinue to do business. When one's system is tasked beyond 
its powers of endurance, that moment it begins to wear out. 
Good wholesome food, properly prepared, produces good 
blood, which nourishes brain, bone, and muscle. Happi- 
ness to every family has its headquarters in the culinary 
department. If the manipulations of the cooking process 
are at fault or defe6iive, the whole domestic economy will 
suffer, and unhappiness follows. A fretty and restless child 
destroys much comfort and enjoyment of a household. All 
this is often occasioned by the indigestible food which the 
child is compelled to eat. It is simply inhuman to compel 
children to eat food that is unfit for them. We believe it 
would be a wise provision of law that no girl could marry 
without having first passed an examination and received a 
diploma certifying to her qualifications by experience and 
knowledge of the hygiene of the kitchen. We see no 
reason why laws should not be made to cover the proper 
preparation of food as well as the adulteration of it. It is 
due to the health of the community that only pure articles 
of food shall be sold and used ; also that pure articles of 
food shall not be converted into poison. One is as bad as 
the other. The time is near at hand when it will be fash- 
ionable, when it will be a great acquisition, to know how to 
prepare the choicest dishes for those in health, as also for 
the invalid ; when the highest art will be, not to decorate a 
plate, but to prepare the food that is to grace it. Elegant 



230 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

service, with beautiful and appropriate desig-ns, are pleasing 
to look upon, but will not satisfy the cravings of a hungry 
man one iota, or make a miserably cooked dinner one par- 
ticle better. Muddy coffee will not taste any better in gold 
cups. 

A good English education and the knowledge of domes- 
tic economy, will add more to a young man's happiness 
than all the foreign languages or polite accomplishments 
that it is possible for any one young lady to be the mistress 
of If a young lady's conversational powers are limited to 
a few stereotyped phrases, as "awful mean," ''horrid," 
''ugly," etc., a little schooling would add to her ability to 
use more elegant language. We have heard some very 
coarse expressions from ladies occupying costly mansions, 
living in good style. Such people purchase their libraries 
by the square yard, and estimate their value by the quantity 
of gilt on the back of the covers, not by ihe contents. 

UNHAPPILY MATED. 

I pity from my heart the unhappy man who has a bad wife. She is shackles 
on his feet, a palsy to his hands, a burden to his shoulder, smoke to his eyes, 
vinegar to his teeth, a thorn to his side, a dagger to his heart. — Osborne. 

We have said what we have on the dark side of wedded 
life that each young man may realize the fa6l that it is all a 
lottery if he should marry on an evening's acquaintance. 
We know of a case where a young man courted and mar- 
ried a young lady without letting any of his friends know 
of his intentions to marry. He thought he was doing a 
shrewd thing. He found that he had not done so well 
when, in two weeks after they were married, he had to 
carry his wife to an insane asylum. He had married into 
a family where insanity was hereditary. He must either 
live with an insane wife or support her at the asylum. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 231 

We know of two persons in Vermont who were married 
at an evening party, because a justice offered to marry any 
couple without pay who would ''stand up" then and there. 
Two fools ''stood up," and were married. The longer they 
lived together the greater became their disgust over their 
foolishness. It proved to be a miserable union. 

A justice of the peace of Council Bluffs performed a mar- 
riage ceremony the other day, for quite a lively and posi- 
tive couple. When asked if she would "take this man as 
your lawful and wedded husband," the bride responded, 
"You bet your Hfe, judge, I will." When pronounced man 
and wife, the bride turned to the justice with a surprised 
look, and asked, " Is that all there is to the ceremony for 
two dollars?" She evidently expected a lengthy ceremony 
and a big reception, banquet and presents thrown in. 

In Massachusetts, in 1878, there were six hundred di- 
vorces, or one in every twenty-one marriages; Vermont 
one to every fourteen ; Rhode Island one to every eleven ; 
Connecticut one to seventeen. The figures are for legal 
divorces obtained, while the number of those couples who 
were self-divorced, or who lived a cat-and-dog life, would 
reduce the number of happy marriages to less than sixty to 
the one hundred. If we could have corre6l data to refer to, 
we presume we should find that the great majority entered 
into the marriage relation with little or no real personal 
acquaintance. The sixty thousand surplus females over 
the males in Massachusetts may have had considerable to 
do with hasty marriages, and the equally hasty divorces in 
that state. 

Any young man who is nat willing to consult with his 
mother or sister on so important a matter, will stand a good 
chance of making an unfortunate alliance. Your mother 



232 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

or sister is better qualified to judge of a young lady's capa- 
bilities, and whether she has those traits of character and 
habits that would most likely conduce to a happy union, 
more intelligently than it would be possible for you to 
know any young woman. If you refuse all advice, you 
cannot expect to receive any sympathy should you make 
an unfortunate alliance. 

The best way for every young man is to go slow and 
consider well each move he makes towards a union for life. 
There have been and are to-day some remarkable instances 
of that perfect unity, stronger than death. 

THE GIRL OF THE SORT TO GET. 

" The true girl has to be sought for. She does not parade 
herself as show goods. She is not fashionable. Generally, 
she is not rich. But, oh ! what a heart she has when you 
find her ! so large and pure and womanly. When you see 
it, you wonder if those showy things outside were women. 
If you gain her love, your two thousands are millions. 
She'll not ask you for a carriage, or a first-class house. 
She'll wear simple dresses, and turn them when necessary, 
with no lofty magnifico to frown upon her economy. She'll 
keep everything neat and nice in your sky parlor, and give 
you such a welcome when you come home that you'll think 
the parlor higher than ever. She'll entertain true friends on 
a dollar, and astonish you with the new thought, how little 
happiness depends on money. She'll make you love home 
(if you don't you are a brute), and teach you how to pity, 
while you scorn, a poor, fashionable society that thinks itself 
rich, and vainly tries to think itself happy. 

''Now, do not, I pray you, say any more, 'I can't afTord 
to marry.' Go find the true woman, and you can. Throw 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 233 

away that cigar, burn up that switch cane, be sensible your- 
self, and choose your wife in a sensible way." — Holmes. 

SOME OF THE EVIDENCES OF CONJUGAL 

FELICITY. 

He is the happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds peace in his home. 

— Goethe. 

To Adam Paradise was home; to the good among his descendants, home is 
paradise. — Hare. 

The best way to judge of the happiness that has existed 
in a family, when dissolved by death, is to see how the hus- 
band has willed his property, or how the wife has disposed 
of hers. It is an unerring guide; as, for instance, the hus- 
band dies, willing all his property to his wife, making her 
the sole executrix of his estate without bonds. Another 
leaves a small pittance to be doled out to his wife so long 
as she remains ^'his widow," but in the event of marriage, 
she is ''cut off" from any further support. We know a 
gentleman who was not possessed of this world's goods, 
but his wife had a competence. She died, not leaving him 
a cent. 

We know of a gentleman who married a young lady, and 
died, leaving all his wealth to her, and not a child to care 
for. It was a fortune ; one she could not well spend during 
the remainder of her life, yet she has not found time to have 
a suitable monument placed over his grave. She has had 
time to visit Europe several times, spending two or three 
years abroad. She is, no doubt, waiting for a new style 
of monument. Powers, Mills, Harriet Hosmer, or Vinne 
Ream, are altogether too feeble in their conceptions of what 
is appropriate for tokens of buried hopes. She has had no 
time to care for the grave. Nature has had all the care. 
She has wasted no time on tear-drops, or in its decoration. 



234 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R F. 

She has had time, however, to marry a second husband, and 
if we can read human nature, we think he has by this time 
found out just what virtues his predecessor possessed, and 
what would be a suitable epitaph for the monument, if it is 
ever ere6led. He probably also has learned that his name 
would be a lasting disgrace beside ''my first husband," who 
was a good and true man. 

Look at another example: Mr. C dies, leaving no child, 
but all his fortune to his wife. For ten long years, every 
day in the year, she visited the grave of her husband, if the 
weather was suitable, or her health would allow of it. Her 
loving hands were ever busy beautifying the lot. Costly 
improvements were continually being made. Some new 
improvements were constantly under contemplation. 

This restri6lion by will of the widow, should she marry, 
exhibits a -very ungenerous spirit under the most charitable 
conclusion, and of the happiness existing between man and 
wife. Contrast it with an instance of this kind : The wife 
was dying, she called her husband to the bedside, and said, 
''Albert, you have been a good husband to me; have given 
me a beautiful home, better than I ever expected or de- 
served; you will miss me, the children will miss me, and 
you will be lonely when I am gone. The children will 
need some one to care for them, and when the proper time 
comes, I want you to marry again, to find some one to fill 
my place. It will be better for you ; better for the children. 
There is my sister Alice, or my dear friend Laura Adams, 
either one will make you a good companion. Promise me 
you will do as I wish, and I shall die happy. If spirits are 
allowed to visit their friends, I will come to you and be 
your guardian angel. Do not put it off" too long. When 
the wild flowers blossom over my grave, and the time of the 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 235 

singing of the birds has come again, it will be long enough 
to wait. Kiss me once more — you need not speak, I know 
it will be well. Good-bye." 

The consciousness of being loved softens the keenest pang, even at the 
moment of parting; yes, even the farewell is robbed of half its bitterness when 
uttered in accents that breathe love to the last sigh. — Addison. 

We were recently in the city of Galveston, Texas, and 
visited the resting-place of the dead. There were no graves, 
but tombs are built upon the surface of the ground. We 
stopped in front of one of these tombs, of fine architeftural 
design, built of beautiful marble, which the master-hand of 
an artist had skillfully worked out. Thousands of dollars 
had been expended upon it. Thfe door was a single slab of 
Italian marble, in the center of which was placed a panel 
of glass, exposing the interior to view from the outside. 
Through the center of the tomb extended a hall, or pass- 
age-way, on either side of which were recesses for the 
reception of caskets containing the dead. Suspended from 
the center of the hallway hung a basket filled with the 
choicest of flowers. The rays of the sun lighted up the 
interior, dispelling all gloom. It w^as the palace-tomb of a 
beloved wife, erefted by a sorrow-stricken husband. Her 
memory was there cherished by loving tokens of fresh and 
fragrant flowers daily brought and placed in the basket. 

We were acquainted with a gentleman in the state of 
Pennsylvania, who buried his wife some ten years ago, and 
it is impossible to be with him for an hour without his 
alluding to his great loss. He had been a man of aflive 
business habits, and for years before his wife died, she, if 
well, always went with him wherever his business called 
him. A happier couple probably could not be found any- 
where. 



236 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

Instances are numerous where a couple have lived to- 
gether fifty or sixty years, and when one has died the other 
has followed soon after, sometimes in a few hours, some- 
times in a day, and frequently in less than a week, so closely 
were the ties of affection entwined around their hearts. 
'* They were lovely in their lives, and in their death they 
were not divided." 

A WIFE TO HER HUSBAND. 

" One of us, dear — 

But one — 
Will sit by a bed with marvellous fear, 

And clasp a hand. 
Growing cold as it feels for the spirit-land — 

Darling, which one? 

" One of us, dear — 
But one — 
Will stand by the other's coffin bier, 

And look and weep, 
While those strange marble lips strange silence keep — 
Darling, which one? 

** One of us, dear — 
But one — 
By an open grave will drop a tear, 

And homeward go. 
The anguish of an unshared grief to know — 
Darling, which one? 

" One of us, darling, it must be, 
It may be you will slip from me ; 
Or perhaps my life may first be done — 
Which one? " 

Whoever marries for money may rest assured it will not 
guarantee a happy home. A young lady in Chicago, when 
asked by the officiating minister, ''Will you love, honor, 
and obey this man as your husband, and be to him a true 
wife?" said plainly, ''Yes, if he does what he promised me 
financially !^ Love didn't make that match. Love does 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 237 

not require any bargain. Love ignores all conditions. 
'' Confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the 
gate." 

"Wanted — a hand to hold my own, 
As down life's vale I glide ; 
Wanted — an arm to lean upon, 
Forever by my side. 

" Wanted — a firm and steady foot, 
With step secure and free, 
To take its straight and onward pace, 
Over life's path with me. 

"Wanted — a form ere6t and high, 
A head above my own ; 
So much that I might walk beneath 
It's shadows o'er me thrown.. 

"Wanted — an eye within whose depths 
Mine own might look, and see 
Uprising from a guileless heart, 
O'erflown with love for me. 

"Wanted — a lip, whose kindest smile 
Would speak for me alone ; 
A voice whose richest melody 
Would breathe affe6lion's tone. 

"Wanted — a true, religious soul, 
To pious purposes given, 
With whom my own might pass along 
The road that leads to heaven." 

We believe the practice is all wrong, which only allows 
a gentleman to make proposals of marriage. We see no 
good reason why a young lady should not have an equal 
chance, and we feel confident that there would be no 
greater number of unfortunate marriages than there is now, 
but the reverse. We believe it to be a noble impulse of a 
noble soul to seek for a lovable companion. 

And what doth express true love better than the follow- 
ing: 
16— 



238 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

"For whither thou goest I will go\ and where thou 
lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and 
thy God my God; where thou diest will I die, and there 
will I be buried ; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if 
aught but death part thee and me." 

If the Arab tradition be true, a person living single is 
only one-half of a complete being, and such persons can- 
not enjoy more than one-half of what there is to enjoy in a 
happy union. If to live single is for the best good of man, 
why was Eve created for a companion to Adam ? To live 
single, voluntarily, is to question the edift of the Almighty, 
when He said, "It is not good that man should be alone." 

" How independent of money peace of conscience is, and how much happi- 
ness can be condensed into the humblest home." 

NEWLY- MARRIED COUPLES. 

Of newly-married couples, the Golden Age has this to 
say : 

" It is the happiest, most virtuous state of society in 
which the husband and wife set out together, and with 
perfe6l sympathy of soul, graduate all their expenses, 
plans, calculations, and desires with reference to their pres- 
ent means and to their future and common interests. 

" Nothing delights man more than to enter the neat little 
tenement of the young people, who, within perhaps two or 
three years, without any resources but their own knowl- 
edge and industry, joined heart and hand, and engaged to 
share together the responsibilities, duties, interests, trials, 
and pleasures of life. The industrious wife is cheerfully 
employing her hands in domestic duties, putting her house 
in order, or mending her husband's clothes, or preparing 
the dinner, while perhaps the little darling sits prattling on 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 239 

the floor or lies sleeping in the cradle, and everything 
seems preparing to welcome the happiest of husbands, and 
the best of fathers, when he shall come home from his toil 
to enjoy the sweets of his little paradise. 

But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love forever. — Burns. 

"This is the true domestic pleasure. Health, content- 
ment, love, abundance, and bright prospers are all here. 
But it has become a prevalent sentiment that a man must 
acquire his fortune before he marries — that the wife must 
have no sympathy nor share with him in the pursuit of it 
— in which most of the pleasure truly consists — and the 
young married people must set out with as large and ex- 
pensive an establishment as is becoming those who have 
been wedded for twenty years. This is very unhappy. It 
fills the community with bachelors, who are waiting to 
make their fortunes, endangering virtue, promoting vice; 
destroys the true economy and design of the domestic 
institution, and it promotes inefficiency among females, 
who are expe6ling to be taken up by fortunes and pass- 
ively sustained without any care or concern on their part, 
and thus many a wife becomes, as a gentleman once re- 
marked, not a ' helpmeet,' but a ' help-eat.' " 

''in ye olden time." 

The early settlers of Haverhill, Massachusetts, denied the 
right of any man to live alone, even if he chose to do so. 
Old bachelors couldn't do as they pleased then, in Haver- 
hill, and the court went for them roughly. Here is the rec- 
ord: "This court being informed that John Littlehale liveth 
alone, in a house by himself, contrary to the law of the 
country, whereby he is subjeft to much sin," etc. So John 
was allowed six weeks to remove to "some orderly family." 



240 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

But John was an incorrigible old bachelor, and wouldn't 
give up his way of living in single blessedness until forty- 
four YEARS afterwards, when he married, and then prob- 
ably found out how big a fool he had persistently been for 
forty-four years, at least. But they did worse than that to 
old maids — they hung some of them for witches. 

Ministers in those days were not so prostrated with their 
church services, as a presiding elder of the African Meth- 
odist Episcopal church in Georgia was recently, when, at 
the close of a quarterly meeting, a couple presented them- 
selves for marriage, he said to them, " Go away and wait 
until I come again; I am too tired to marry you 7iow!'' No 
doubt he felt weaker than Oliver Wendell Holmes said he 
should be, when he answered a le6fure committee thus: 
'' The state of my health is such that if I should deliver my 
lecture before your lyceum, I would be so weak when I got 
through, that if you should tender me a fifty dollar bank- 
note I wouldn't have strength enough left to refuse ity 

Perhaps we have overdrawn the pi6lure a little, and made 
" it too sombre ; yet no doubt, after all we have said, some 
young man will not heed our suggestions, and rush reck- 
lessly into the bands of matrimony! "A prudent man 
foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, but the simple pass 
on and are punished." 

Every home is not destitute' of happiness. There are 
. hundreds, thousands, of happy, very happy homes, where 
love reigns supreme. It does not require a stately man- 
sion, elegant furniture, plenty of servants, horses and car- 
riages, and magnificent leisure, to make a happy home. 

Gold does not satisfy love ; it must be paid in its own coin. 

— Madame Deluzy 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 241 

THERE IS NOTHING TOO GOOD FOR MAN. 

"I never saw a garment too fine for man or maid; there 
never was a chair too good for a cobbler, or a cooper, or a 
king to sit in ; never a house too fine to shelter the human 
head. These elements about us, the glorious sky, the im- 
perial sun, are not too good for the human race. Elegance 
fits man. But do we not value these tools for house-keep- 
ing a little more than they are worth, and sometimes mort- 
gage a house for the mahogany we bring into it? I had 
rather eat my dinner off' the head of a barrel, or dress after 
the fashion of John the Baptist in the wilderness, or sit on a 
block all my life, than consume all myself before I got to 
a home, and take so much pains with the outside that the 
inside was as hollow as an empty nut. Beauty is a great 
thing; but beauty of garment, house, and furniture are 
tawdry ornam.ents compared with domestic love. All the 
elegance in the world will not make a home, and I would 
give more for a spoonful of real hearty love than for whole 
ship -loads of furniture, and all the gorgeousness all the 
upholsterers in the world can gather." — Dr, Holmes, 

'' Nothing is sweeter than love, nothing more courageous, 
nothing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, noth- 
ing fuller or better in heaven and earth; because love is 
born of God, and cannot rest but in God, above all created 
things." — Thomas A, Kempis. 

Blest be Love, to whom we owe 

All that's bright and fair below ; 

Song was cold and painting dim, 

Till song and painting learned from him. 

— Thomas Moore, 

Ah, well ! for us all some sweet hope lies 
Deeply buried from human eyes ; 
And, in the hereafter, angels may 
Roll the stone from its grave away. 

— Whittier's Maud Muller. 



242 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

By 3^our truth she shall bertue, 

Ever true, as wives of yore ; 
And \\Qr yes, once said to you, 

Shall be yes for evermore. 

— Elizabeth Barrett Brownings 

A SONG FOR THE "HEARTH AND HOME." 

Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily 
Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea ; 

Little care I, as here I sit cheerily, 
Wife at my side and my baby on knee. 

King! king! crown me the king ! 

Home is the kingdom and Love is the king! 

Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces. 
Dearer and dearer and onward we go. 

Forces the shadow behind us, and places 
Brightness around us with warmth in the glow. 

King ! king ! crown me the king ! 
Home is the kingdom and Love is the king ! 

Flashes the lovelight, increasing the glory. 
Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul^ 

Telling of trust and content the sweet story. 
Fighting the shadows that over us roll. 

King ! king ! crown me the king .' 
Home is the kingdom and Love is the king ! 

Richer than miser with perishing treasure, 
Served with a service no conquest could bring ; 

Happy with fortune that words cannot measure. 
Light-hearted I on the hearthstone can sing. 

King ! king ! crown me the king ! 
Home is the kingdom and Love is the king! 

— J^ev. William Rankin Duryea^ 



KJENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 243 



THE MAGNITUDE OF TRIFLES. 

We must learn to infuse sublimity into trifles. That is power. — Millet. 

Trifles lighter than straws are levers in the building up of chara6ler. 

— Tupper. 

One of the prime causes of failure is the ignoring of small 
things in detail; the insignificant matters as they are styled. 
The forgetting or negle6ling to dot an "i" or cross a "t" 
has swept away fortunes. The failure to close a door or to 
turn a key has laid great blocks of buildings in ashes, caus- 
ing not only the loss of the property, but throwing hun - 
dreds of poor people out of employment, to suffer there- 
from. The old story of the loss of the nail from the shoe 
of the horse, where horse, rider, and battle were lost, is 
true, in fa6i;, in a thousand ways. It is the grain of sand 
that turns the scale. It is the ounces that make the pounds, 
and the pounds that make the tons ; the cents that make 
the dollars, the dollars that make the fortunes. A flake of 
snow comes sailing gracefully down — ''the beautiful snow.'' 
A breath will dissolve the falling flake into a drop, causing 
it to weep. Another and another of the tiny little white- 
winged messengers falls upon the ground, and in a little 
while everything is mantled in snowy drapery. How grace- 
fully it sits upon the trees and everything, hiding the many 
unsightly objects with its snowy whiteness. A charming 
sight! Look at a flake under a glass. What artist can 
design so unique a pattern? It is perfe6lion. How inno- 
cent and harmless ! They keep coming. The winged mes- 
sengers are light as a feather. They drop upon the roofs of 
all the buildings, each little flake adding its [mite. Happy 
children ! They lie down close together in their downy 
bed. No quarrelling, as silently they take their places, 



244 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

adding slowly to the weight, until down goes the roof upon 
the worshippers below, and scores are crushed to death. 
Many people are crippled for life by the "beautiful snow,'* 
that came so noiselessly down and rested upon the roof 

The iron horse sweeps through the fleecy whiteness, 
whirling and crushing the beautiful crystals under its heavy 
wheels. It laughs to see them light upon its hot boiler, and 
dissolve in tears. They come down all the same, and cover 
the track. The iron horse begins to tire, as the snow packs 
around the rails, and from a forty-mile pace it comes down 
to twenty, to ten, to one, to a dead stop. It is "snow- 
bound," and can go neither forward nor backward. It 
snorts and puffs and blows, but it is no go. The snow 
has bound it fast; it is a prisoner. So silently influences 
gather around one's footsteps, imperceptible for good or 
evil. Only by watching closely the pathway can we know 
whither they are leading us. 

TRIFLES — LITTLE THINGS. 

There is nothing insignificant — nothing. — Coleridge. 

What mighty contests rise from trivial things. — Pope. 

Trifles lighter than air turn the scales for weal or woe, 
deciding the destinies of nations and of individuals. The 
greatest events in the world's history turn on the smallest 
pivot. There are no such things as little things, or little 
moments, when weighed in the scales of mighty possibili- 
ties. The briefest point of time marked by the ticking of 
the clock is fraught with momentous consequences, and 
there are often crowded into one of those almost inconceiv- 
able spaces of time the greatest events of the world's his- 
tory. It is but yes or no that sheaths the sword or draws 
it, to deluge the world in blood. It was but the falling of a 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 245 

tear-drop that made Washington the father of his country, 
the first president of the United States. It is but the mov- 
ing of a lever a few inches that saves a train from a plunge 
into the abyss. It is only the breaking of a hair-spring in 
a condu6for's or engineer's watch and two minutes' silence, 
and two crowded express trains, under fearful headway, 
come together; an awful wreck results — the wounded and 
the dying fill the air with their wails of pain and anguish. 
Upon the breaking of so small a thing as the hair-spring of 
a watch, the effe6l is felt around the world; tears and sor- 
row darken scores of happy homes, mourning for the loved 
ones who are never to return ; happy families are scattered 
to meet no more, and tender feet must travel life's rough 
journey alone in sorrow's darkening pathway. 

THE CHICAGO FIRE. 

The morning after the great fire that laid Chicago in 
ashes, we walked amid the ruins of palatial residences, ele- 
gant churches, stately hotels, and the great blocks of the 
merchant princes, viewing the desolation. Here and there 
a tall column or chimney stood in solemn silence — monu- 
ments of departed glory and blasted hopes. Streets were 
blocked and made impassable by the debris. It baffled all 
description. Utter desolation and ruin reigned supreme. 
At night the scene changed. The blackness and darkness 
were lighted as by ten thousand camp-fires, blazing from 
ten thousand cellars, from coal that had been laid in for 
winter; while on the wharves acres of anthracite coal were 
one living mass of fire, casting a weird and ghostly glare 
that was hideous to behold. This terrible calamity, the 
burning up of twenty-one hundred acres of costly business 
blocks and happy homes, all came from the burning of a 



246 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

little cow-stable, fired by a cow kicking over a lamp. One 
little match lighted the lamp. Several hundred million 
dollars worth of property was consumed, many lives were 
lost in the conflagration, and hundreds died fi^om the ter- 
rible ordeal through which they passed. Thousands of 
happy homes were broken up and ruined. Business men* 
men who had made their fortunes and retired to spend 
their days in quiet enjoyment of delightful homes, were 
ruined, made penniless and dependent on charity for bread 
and shelter. Broken-hearted, some became insane; others 
committed suicide. This awful calamity, the result of firing 
a single match ! Whisky lighted the match. Friends from 
the old country must be entertained; a milk-punch must 
be made, and Mother O'Leary's cow must furnish the 
milk; and the cow was waited upon. New hands at- 
tempted to do the milking; the cow objefted, and let her 
heels fly, and the lamp was broken. A match, a stroke of 
the hand, so little a thing, a flash, and it is done. What 
possibilities are crowded into a single beat of the pendulum. 

A CITY DESTROYED. 

Many years ago a dyke was built on the coast of Hol- 
land to keep out the sea from the low lands, which became 
the homes of happy families and industrious farmers. A 
city was built. Everybody dwelt apparently in perfect 
security. Suddenly the dyke gave way, and the sea rolled 
in upon the farmers, quickly swallowing up their lands and 
homes. The waves rolled against the city. Great blocks 
of buildings went down before their resistless fury. Every 
succeeding wave rose higher and higher, accumulating 
greater power as they rolled on. What one-half hour 
before were beautiful fields of waving grain, and happy 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 247 

homes, the thronged streets and crowded market-places of 
a great city, became the home of the sea. The noise and 
bustle of the city were hushed into silence. As the great 
waves rolled on in their grandeur, they chanted a requiem 
over the dead buried beneath their waters, in the deep 
diapason notes of old ocean. The low, sad wail of woe was 
wafted landward, over hill and dale, and the dark mantle of 
mourning was seen everywhere in Holland. For a century 
tears ceased not to fall over buried hopes and bright antici- 
pations, for a morrow that came not. And why this awful 
calamity? A little animal — a muskrat — digs a hole in the 
dyke, and the water follows it and trickles through the 
dyke. A handful of clay would have closed it up. It 
increases in size by the wearing of the water. Nobody is 
alarmed; no attention is paid to it. By and by the tide 
rolls in; the dyke yields to the pressure, and the little hole 
of the muskrat becomes an immense gateway to let the 
floods in upon the careless inhabitants. Too late they 
awake from their sleepy lethargy. 

"Temples, towers, and domes of many stories, 
There lie buried in an ocean grave, 
Undescried, save when the golden glories 
Gleam at sunset through the lighted wave." 

It was but a little thing that opened the way for the sea. 
It is but a little thing that turns a young man from the 
right to the wrong. It is but a little word, a little deed, at 
the right or wrong time, that leads on to momentous results 
for good or evil. The great scales turn on a very small 
pivot; great events hinge upon the tick of the watch, the 
swing of the pendulum. 



248 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

FOURTH OF JULY TIME. 

The city of Portland, Maine, was visited by a most disas- 
trous fire on one Fourth of July. A litte boy lights a fire- 
cracker, gives it a ''send-off"," and it falls upon the roof of a 
house. The wind fans it into a blaze ; it burns the house ; 
the wind drives the sparks to adjoining houses, setting 
them on fire. The wind increases, and sweeps the fire 
along furiously ; it leaps from house to house, from street 
to street, until a great portion of the city is in ashes. The 
glorious Fourth ends in a night of sadness, of sorrow, of 
desolation, and death. Hundreds of happy homes and 
happy families are ruined — all to gratify the sport and fun 
of a little boy with a fire-cracker. The effe6l of that little 
boy's fun was felt that day, to-day, and will be felt for all 
time. It killed the brightest hopes of thousands, took from 
them their property, their all. Happy families were broken 
up — some of the members carried to their last resting- 
places ; others were left to linger in pain and sorrow, while 
some became insane and went to the insane asylum, raving 
maniacs, and some committed suicide. One little aft of 
one little boy with one little fire-cracker and one little 
match, set in motion a train of events, the results of which 
will never cease, never end. What are trifles when weighed 
in the scales of mighty possibilities? The least divergence 
of a millionth part of an inch at the outset may lead to 
infinite separation in the end. 

A worm is a trifle when compared with a lion or a whale, 
yet it has sunk many a ship with its little auger. The little 
inseft that builds the coral reefs on the bottom of the ocean 
is possessed of but little physical strength. Yet it works on 
until it forms a sea-wall over which the great ships cannot 
sail, and many have been lost by running on these reefs. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 249 

A lame man was walking- in Pittsburg- one day, when the 
walks were slippery, and he fell, and his hat rolled along 
the sidewalk. A boy came along and gave it a kick, sending 
it out into the street. Another boy came along, helped the 
poor man up, picked up his hat, and assisted him to his 
hotel. He asked the boy his name, and thanked him for 
his kindness and assistance. One day, about a month after, 
there came a draft for the boy who didn't kick the lame 
man's hat, for one thousand dollars. It was a little thing, 
but it paid. 

The creating of a thousand forests is in one acorn. — Emerson. 

It has been calculated that if a single grain of wheat 
produces fifty grains in one year's growth, and these and 
succeeding crops be counted, and yield proportionately, 
the produce of the twelfth year would suffice to supply all 
the inhabitants of the earth for a life-time. In twelve years 
the single grain will have multiplied itself 244,140,625,000,- 
000 times. 

A grain of sand leads to the fall of a mountain, when the moment has come 
for the mountain to fall. — Ernest Renan. 

DISCOVERY OF STEAM. 

About one hundred and thirty years ago a little boy came 
in from play, and sat down on a bench in the chimney-cor- 
ner of his mother's kitchen, ''tired and hungry." While 
waiting and watching his mother prepare the supper, his 
attention was attra6led to the singing of the tea-kettle, 
which hung on the crane over.the fire in the old-fashioned 
fire-place. Soon the water within was boiling, and hot 
steam poured out of the nose of the kettle. As the water 
became hotter, faster it generated into steam, faster than it 
could escape out of the nose, and it forced up the lid and 



250 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

kept it dancing to the music of the escaping vapor as it 
rose and fell. Soon the supper was ready, and the family, 
excepting the little boy, were seated at the table and had 
commenced eating. 

Several times the mother had called her little boy to 
''come to supper, Jimmy," but Jimmy did not come, and 
she wondered why the boy didn't come to his supper, 
when he was so tired and hungry. Quietly she left the 
table, and stepped to the kitchen door, which was standing 
ajar, and looked in to see what "that boy was up to." He 
was still sitting on the bench watching the "steaming ket- 
tle," and its "dancing lid," spell-bound. His young and 
inquisitive mind was trying to solve the reason why the 
tea-kettle lid should keep "hopping up and down." He 
solved the mystery by discovering that it was from the 
power that was in the steam. He was the first one to 
"harness up" this new-found power, and bid it to "turn 
the wheel;" and from that day to this it has not refused to 
obey the order with alacrity. 

So to that little boy, James Watt, sitting on a bench in 
the chimney-corner, waiting for his supper, the world is 
indebted for the discovery of the power there is in steam. 
And what a mighty power ! What would become of the 
railroads, the steamships, and the ten thousand industries 
of the world, of which steam is now the propelling power, 
should it cease to "turn the wheel," or fire and water 
should fail to generate steam? Every wheel, every shaft, 
every spindle now driven by steam would come to a stand- 
still; the hum of the manufa6fories of the world would be 
hushed into silence; millions of people would be thrown 
out of employment, millions would be driven to the wall, 
to starvation, to death. A greater calamity is hardly pos- 
sible to conceive. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 251 

Steam not only affords employment to a host of people, 
but it is a great civilizer of nations ; it is the world's best 
educator. Wherever goes the "steam wagon," go along 
with it light and intelligence, dispelling the ignorance and 
superstition of the darker ages. 

ELECTRICITY — ITS POWER. 

Dr. Franklin sent up his little silk kite to the clouds, 
while a thunder-storm was passing over the city of Phil- 
adelphia. A frail string held the kite under his control. 
He placed a door-key on the string, and with that key he 
unlocked the doors to a new world — the world of ele6lric- 
ity — and left them unlocked. Dr. Morse was anxious to 
explore this new world, and to learn of its elements. He 
soon became acquainted with its peculiarities — its fondness 
to ''play upon the wires," its willingness to become a very 
obedient servant, and he ''harnessed up the lightning." 
He invented an automatic machine, which recorded each 
pulsation as it ran to and fro upon the wires. It became 
the swift messenger of thought, and wires now encircle 
the globe and swift as the lightning's flash, flashes tidings 
around the world. To Professors Gray, Bell, and Edison 
is accredited the honor of making it "talk," not only in 
one language, but it readily responds in any language 
addressed with equal fluency. It is a ready messenger 
for all, at all seasons, anywhere — over trackless deserts, 
over mountains, or under oceans. Neither heat nor cold 
impedes its flight. It never grows weary. 

The telephone is the "mystery of mysteries." How the 
voice sweeps along the wire, through storm and tempest, 
passing by all the babel and noise of a great city, and yet 
does not lose its way or become confused or unrecogniz- 



252 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

able as it enters a quiet home, is to us incomprehensible. 
Electricity, instead of being a dreaded foe to mankind, has 
proved to be his best friend and servant — one with which 
we cannot dispense. It may have in store for us still 
greater good yet undeveloped. It is to be the great lumi- 
nator, to light up the darkest night into the dazzling bril- 
liancy of the sun in its strength. It is invaluable as a 
remedial agent. Its healing powers surpass all medicines 
known to the medical profession. 

Yet the greatest marvel is still to come. The telephone 
permits us to converse with friends hundreds of miles away, 
but the newly-discovered diaphone brings friends face to 
face, so that we cannot only hear their voices, but see them 
as well. It is too incredible to believe, but the fa6l: is never- 
theless affirmed. What would Franklin and Morse say if 
they could return to earth and see what wonderful advance- 
ments have been made in the uses and appliances of elec- 
tricity since they left the world. And yet how insignificant 
were the appliances by which Dr. Franklin obtained a prac- 
tical demonstration of the adaptability of this marvellous 
agent to become so willing a servant to man. How im- 
mense is the wealth it has added to the world's assets! 
And yet it cannot be bottled up and packed away in ware- 
houses for railroad kings and stock-jobbers to buy and 
sell. It is too abundant ; it pervades all space, and is free 
as the mountain air. Speculators cannot get up ''a corner" 
on lightning. They can patent as many ''harnesses" as 
they please, but they cannot ''chain up" the lightning, or 
put it under a padlock. Nothing in the forces of nature 
surpasses electricity in its intrinsic value to the welfare of 
the human race. 

There are no "little things," when linked to the mighty 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 253 

possibilities enveloped in the unknown future. No discov- 
ery in nature dwindles away as its secrets are unfolded and 
revealed to human conception; but each step advances 
humanity upward to a greater and grander existence as 
they are unfolded to our comprehension. So it will be for 
all time, to all eternity. 

In 1866 the emperor of Russia had a narrow escape 
from assassination as he was about to step into his carriage. 
An assassin had leveled his revolver at the czar, when his 
arm was instantly struck up by a serf standing near, and 
the pistol was discharged in the air. At evening the serf 
was brought into the presence of the emperor, and by him 
informed that he had been elevated to the rank and dignity 
of a nobleman. It was a trifling thing for the serf to do, 
but it paid him to be forever after a Russian nobleman. 

Duties ours, events are Gods. * — Cecil. 

It always pays| to do a good deed. It is a good invest- 
ment. It returns the largest of dividends. 

Think naught a trifle, though it small appear — 
Small sands the mountains, moments make the year, 
And trifles life. 

— Young. 

TRIFLING WITH HUMAN LIFE. 

A palatial steamer, built of iron, left her wharf at Boston, 
one afternoon in January last, bound for Savanna, Georgia. 
The passenger list was large, embracing a representative 
class — business men, do6iors, lawyers, ministers, teachers, 
ladies and gentlemen of leisure, on a pleasure trip, invalids, 
fleeing from the rigor of a northern winter, hoping to enjoy 
the balmy atmosphere of the ''sunny south"— were pass- 
engers on this magnificent steamer. Friends were at the 
wharf to ''see them ofll" The mutual exchange of the 
17— 



254 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

*' good-byes" and ''farewells" were expressed with no litde 
emodon, as now and then a falHng tear was brushed aside, 
which had stolen away unbidden from an overflowing foun- 
tain. Anchor ''weighed," the noble steamer glided grace- 
fully from the wharf; and on its way down the harbor, 
friends on board watched friends on shore, waving hand- 
kerchiefs until the intervening distance and the falling of 
night's sable mantle enveloped all in darkness. Friends 
left behind turned their faces homeward with sorrowing 
hearts, as they thought of the long interval that would 
intervene before "we shall meet again." Those on the 
departing steamer were no doubt subdued in their spirits 
as their thoughts went back to the "loved ones at home." 
Nearer and dearer they now seemed than ever before. The 
grand supper, the music, and the happy greetings of new- 
made acquaintances, did not dispel these sombre thoughts 
from all hearts. When the hour of midnight arrived, all 
voices were hushed, and the elegantly furnished cabin was 
deserted. Nothing but the noise of the machinery and the 
tremor it gave to the ship disturbed the quiet of a single 
passenger. It was a beautiful night. The moon shone in 
its splendor, lighting up the crested waves with its silvery 
light, while the stars from their far-off abode smiled upon 
the floating palace lovingly. The light-house keepers had 
been faithful to their duty, and their lamps were trimmed 
and brightly burning. 

With the morning light come the morning papers tell- 
ing the sad news that the "City of Columbus" had gone 
down, and one hundred passengers were lost; one hundred 
homes mantled in untold grief for loved ones who would 
not return. This terrible catastrophe was simply the result 
of one man deserting his post for his own personal comfort. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 255 

The lives of one hundred people sacrificed who had com- 
mitted themselves to the tender mercies of a man whom 
they trusted with implicit confidence. All this because that 
man trifled with the precious lives of his passengers. 

Let us return to the steamer — time, two o'clock, A. M. 

The captain surveyed the scene with an air of satisfa6fion 
that all was well, and turned in to enjoy a nap in the com- 
fortable cabin. The man at the ''wheel" was equally well 
satisfied that all danger was far removed from that staunch 
ship, and he "ties up the wheel" and retreats behind the 
smoke-stack to escape the stiff" breeze and warm up. 
Twenty minutes and he is back to his deserted post of 
duty, and lo, and behold ! the roar of the breakers tells him 
it is not well. The captain is startled from his revery and 
dreams, by ''hard a-port!" He hurries on deck, only to 
feel the concussion as the steamer strikes upon the hidden 
rocks. The alarm is sounded, and the passengers are 
aroused from their peaceful slumbers, only to know that 
there is no escape from their impending doom. The cold 
is intense, the breakers run high, and the noble ship is 
sinking. There are none to rescue ; no boat could live in 
such a surf Fifteen minutes pass, and the piercing cries 
for help, and the agonizing prayers for deliverance, are all 
hushed, and the wild waves chant a requiem over one 
hundred passengers buried in one grave, one coffin. The 
"City of Columbus" was the coffin. 

WHISKY DID IT. 

A crowded passenger train was wrecked by being pre- 
cipitated over an embankment. Several of the passengers 
were killed outright, and others were frightfully wounded, 
some maimed and crippled for life. This sad catastrophe 



256 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

was occasioned by the switchman deserting his post of duty 
to satisfy that insatiate thirst for whisky — that insatiate 
demon that knows no satisfaction. The switchman went 
across the street for his dram, and ''forgot" to close the 
open switch, thus trifling with human Ufe, a crime of the 
greatest magnitude, for which there is and can be no ade- 
quate punishment. No wonder the switchman ran away 
when he saw the dead, and heard the moans of the dying, 
and the wails of friends over loved ones crushed and 
mangled almost beyond recognition. 

THE TERRIBLE RESULT OF ONE BOY's SIN. 

A few days ago there was a great riot in Cincinnati, Ohio, 
in which more than ten thousand people were engaged. 
The governor was compelled to call out several regiments 
of soldiers to quell the riot. A two million dollar court- 
house and a one hundred thousand dollar law library were 
destroyed. Fifty persons were killed outright, and more 
than one hundred and fifty wounded; and many of them, if 
they live, will be crippled for life. This terrible riot, and its 
fearful cost of property and of human life, was the result of 
one boy's sin of covetousness. In the solitude of his cham- 
ber he conceived a plan by which he hoped to obtain money 
he so much coveted. He enlisted a comrade to help him 
execute the plan. They murdered a man in cold blood for 
the paltry sum of thirty -eight dollars. No man living will 
see the end of this terrible crime of an eighteen-year-old 
boy. What fearful consequences — what a train of circum- 
stances — were linked to the crime of that Berner boy! 
Who can compute the magnitude of that one sin ! 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 257 



SMALL BEGINNINGS. 

BY CHARLES MACKAY. 

A traveller through a dusty road strewed acorns on the lea, 

And one took root and sprouted up, and grew into a tree. 

Love sought its shade at evening-time, to breathe its early vows ; 

And age was pleased, in heats of noon, to bask beneath its boughs ; 

The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, the birds sweet music bore ; 

It stood a glory in its place, a blessing evermore. 

A little spring had lost its way amid the grass and fern, 

A passing stranger scooped a well, where weary men might turn ; 

He walled it in, and hung with care a ladle at the brink ; 

He thought not of the deed he did, but judged that toil might drink. 

He passed again, and lo! the well, by summers never dried. 

Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, and saved a life beside. 

A dreamer dropped a random thought ; 'twas old, and yet 'twas new ; 

A simple fancy of the brain, but strong in being true. 

It shone upon a genial mind, and lo ! its light became 

A lamp of life, a beacon ray, a monitory flame. 

The thought was small ; its issue great ; a watch-fire on the hill ; 

It sheds its radiance far adown, and cheers the valley still ! 

A nameless man, amid a crowd that thronged the daily mart, 
Let fall a word of hope and love, unstudied, from the heart ; 
A whisper on the tumult thrown — a transitory breath — 
It raised a brother from the dust ; it saved a soul from death. 
O germ ! O fount ! O word of love ! O thought at random cast ! 
Ye were but little at the first, but mighty at the last. 



' The inspiration of a thought, the magic of a word — how momentous. ''' 



258 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 



ACTION! ACTION!! ACTION!!! 

A6lion is the highest perfeftion and drawing forth of the utmost power, vigor, 
and a6livity of man's nature. — South. 

A61 well at the moment, and you have performed a good a6lion to all eternity. 

— Levater. 

"There is always room for a man of force, and he makes room tor many." 
Heaven ne'er helps the man who will not a6l. — Sophocles, 

It is action that wins. Action is everything. People 
dying of ennui never accompHsh anything, but block up 
the way of others who are trying to strike out for them- 
selves. We are sick, heart-sick of that class who hang 
around and grunt, and whine, and do nothing for them- 
selves or anybody else. 

The spirit that nerves one up to do his best, in whatever 
place or avocation he is engaged, is worthy of the highest 
praise. To excel, to do a little better to-day than yester- 
day, to do a little better than a companion is doing, is com- 
mendable. Hitting the mark counts one ahead. The leap 
that carries you an inch beyond a competitor, is a mark in 
your favor. Ambition to do good, to develop one's talents 
to their utmost capacity, is praiseworthy. Ambition con- 
trolled by right motives never harms any one. Linked to 
patriotism, it makes heroes and martyrs. What a noble 
example in Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay, 
when he ascended the rigging, and was firmly lashed to the 
mast, there to remain until the battle was lost or won! 
What courage it must have inspired in his men on deck to 
see their commander above them exposed to the sharp- 
shooters of the enemy, with no possible chance to shield 
himself or escape. He was there to direct the battle and 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 259 

face the deadly fire of the enemy. If his vessel went down, 
he went down with it. 

A sacred burden is the life ye bear, 
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, 
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly. 
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, 
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win. 

^ — Frances Anne Kemble. 

TALENT AND AMBITION. 

No amount of pra6lice will develop talent where there is 
no ambition to excel. Where every luxury that money 
will buy is enjoyed, even to the fullest capacity; where the 
daily life is but a round of indulgence that weakens the con- 
stitution and deadens the intelleftual faculties, there is not 
the least inclination to study a branch that requires labor to 
achieve success. 

Political ambition is not worthy of consideration for a 
moment. It is detrimental to the best interests of any 
young man. If he allows himself to be drawn into the 
political arena, it will be one of the worst moves he ever 
made. It will be at the sacrifice of all his principles of 
honor and integrity. It is next to an impossibility for the 
best and most conscientious man living to make politics his 
chief ambition and study, without his reputation becoming 
tarnished. Office-seeking is fraught with many perils. 
There are too few offices, and too many who want to fill 
them ; all cannot be satisfied. The sad examples of those 
who have tried, only to fail in the end, and go down to 
their graves before their time, wrecks of their former great- 
ness, ought to be sufficient warning to all. 

John C. Calhoun came the nearest of any man living or 
dead of reaching the highest pinnacle of his ambition, only 
missing it by a step. When Calhoun graduated from Yale 



260 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

college, he said, "Now for the presidency!" And he con- 
centrated his entire energies to accomplish his purpose, to 
gain the coveted place. He came as near the door aS any 
man could, and not pass over its threshold, being ele6led 
vice-president on the ticket with Andrew Jackson. Web- 
ster, Clay, Everett, Seward, Chase, Douglass, and Greeley, 
all wanted to be president. They all failed. All spent their 
last days in sorrow over disappointed ambition. They had 
worked and toiled hard for years to accomplish a purpose, 
only to fail, and to die with an ambition unsatisfied. 

POLITICAL HONORS UNSATISFYING. 

Men who are ambitious for political preferment are sel- 
dom satisfied with the honors secured. If the highest 
places are reached, the fruits are unsatisfying and delusive 
— the honors of doubtful substantiality. Even the presi- 
dent of the United States at the end of four years, or eight 
years at the farthest, must relinquish the power and honor 
placed in his hands, and step down and become one of the 
common people, perhaps to be neglected and forgotten. 

One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 

Of stupid starers and of loud huzzas. 

— Pope. 



EXAMPLES OF HEROISM. 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

There are heroes in evil as well as in good. — Rochefaucauld. 

The Vendome column of Paris was ere6led in honor of 
Napoleon Bonaparte by the French government. Twelve 
hundred cannon, captured from the Austrians, were melted 
down to form a spiral relief which wreathed the column 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 261 

from top to bottom, portraying the scenes, and giving the 
names of the great battles won by the emperor. Upon its 
top was placed a statue of Napoleon in Roman costume. 
Many times since its first ere6lion has the statue been 
thrown down, and as often replaced, until in 1875 the col- 
umn was blown into fragments by the French people, who 
had learned to look upon it with derision. Time had 
wrought such changes in the hearts of the French that 
they could no longer look with complacency upon a mon- 
ument ere6led to commemorate the name and fame of a 
despot, whose boundless ambition trampled upon human 
rights without mercy, and lowered in the dust the high 
and low, of whatever creed or nationality, who stood in the 
way of his individual advancement. The heartlessness of 
this man seems incredible. That he should cruelly drive 
from him his beautiful and accomplished wife, Josephine, 
as lovely a woman as ever graced the palace halls of the 
Tuilleries, is something beyond comprehension. No lan- 
guage seems adequate to express condemnation for such 
an a(?t. Yet his life was but a repetition of similar deeds of 
cruelty. Who but Napoleon could have condemned to 
death a soldier who finished and sealed a letter to his wife 
after the time of night when lights were ordered to be 
extinguished, and who, when dete6led, was compelled to 
break the seal and to insert these words as a postscript: 
''I die to-morrow at sunrise, for disobedience of orders?" 
Such men, we are thankful, are rare in these days; yet 
Napoleon's inordinate ambition, which impelled him to ex- 
ercise such inhumanity, has its counterpart in every age; 
and even in our own times men equally ambitious, and 
equally ready to level all before them to subserve their own 
selfish purposes, may be found in every community. 



262 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

We insert the following stanzas from Byron's poem on 
''Napoleon," which most graphically portray the life and 
chara6ler of the world's greatest tyrant, controlled by an 
unholy ambition : 

'Tis done — but yesterday a king! 

And armed with kings to strive — 
And now thou art a nameless thing, 

So abje6l — yet alive! 
Is this the man of thousand thrones, 
Who strewed our earth with hostile bones, 

And can he thus survive? 
Since he, miscalled the Morning Star, 
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. 



And Earth has spilled her blood for him, 

Who thus can hoard his own ! 
And monarchs bowed the trembling limb. 

And thanked him for a throne ! 
Fair Freedom ! may we hold thee dear, 
When thus thy mightiest foes their fear 

In humblest guise have shown. 
O, ne'er may tyrant leave behind 
A brighter name to lure mankind ! 

Thine evil deeds are writ in gore, 

Nor written thus in vain ; 
Thy triumphs tell of fame no more. 

Or deepen every stain. 
If thou hadst died as honor dies, 
Some new Napoleon might arise, 

To shame the world again ; 
But who would soar the solar height, 
To set in such a starless night? 

Weighed in the balance, hero dust 

Is vile as vulgar clay ; 
Thy scales. Mortality ! are just 

To all that pass away ; 
But yet methought the living great 
Some higher spark should animate. 

To dazzle and dismay ; 
Nor deemed contempt could thus make mirth 
Of these, the conquerors of the earth. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 263 

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 

Know how sublime a thing it is to suffer and be strong. — Longfellow. 

No pain, no palm ; no thorn, no throne ; no gall, no glory ; no cross, no crown. 

— William Penn. 

When the Crimean war was in progress, there was wafted 
westward across the continent to England, a wail of woe 
and distress, such as was never heard before by any civil- 
ized people. It came from her sick and wounded soldiers, 
as they lay uncared for on the battle-field. There were 
no hospitals, no hospital supplies, no nurses, and the poor 
soldiers were dying from sheer and cruel negleft. Eng- 
land was alarmed, as the ranks of her army were melting 
away by the fearful mortality among her troops. The sad 
wail, the moans of the sick and dying, were heard by a 
highly accomplished young lady at her home of luxury 
and refinement, surrounded with every comfort wealth 
could command, or loving friends could devise. Instantly 
she responded to the call of the suffering and dying sol- 
diers on the field of battle. Enlisting two hundred assist- 
ants, she bade her happy home and loving friends adieu, 
and with the utmost alacrity hurried to the field of carnage 
■ and death, where shot and shell had done their cruel work. 
At the sight of the awful scenes in that ''valley of death," 
she faltered not. The ghastly dead, the mangled and shat- 
tered wrecks of the human form — made so by the death- 
dealing missiles of the enemy, had no terrors that could 
affiright her, when duty and humanity called. The terrible 
suffering of the sick and wounded, the agonizing cries of 
those who had passed beyond the reach of human aid, 
brought to her view scenes never to be forgotten. The 
sickening stench of decomposing bodies only added to 
the horrors of the situation. It was enough to appal 



264 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

the stoutest heart, and destroy nerves of iron. She went 
among the dead to find the Hving — kneehng down amid 
corpses to administer to some poor soldier who had fallen 
beside them, with all the tenderness of a mother's love or a 
sister's devotion. The rough dragoon, or the young drum- 
mer-boy, some mother's darling, received alike her utmost 
care and attention. 

'' Sairey Gamp and Betsey Prig never raised themselves 
and their class to the level of the clever and competent 
nurses who now come to us in our sickness. It was 
reserved for a gentle woman, Florence Nightingale, to do 
this. But when she startled the world by her self-denial, 
courage, and ability, other women, as well born and deli- 
cately nurtured, soon stepped into the gaps where they 
were so greatly needed. The 'craze,' as it was first called, 
never died out, and to that one woman we owe our present 
valuable trained nurses and sisters." — M. E. Soyer, in the 
London Standard. 

Hundreds, thousands, lived to bless the name of Flor- 
ence Nightingale. No monument is needed to immortalize 
her name. Her memory will be held in grateful remem- 
brance long after the name of Napoleon shall have been 
forgotten. Her labors were not passed by unrewarded. A 
gift of fifty thousand pounds was made to her as a slight 
testimonial of her invaluable services. But her last noble 
a6l was the crowning glory of a beautiful life : she donated 
the entire sum given her to the founding of an institution 
for the education and training of nurses. She still lives, an 
invalid. She sacrificed every comfort, a delightful home 
and its enjoyments, her health and all the pleasures of life, 
that others might live, rescued from the very jaws of death 




Captain—'' Can you hold on five minutes longer? " Pilot—'' By the help of God 



I will try, sir. 



{Page 265) 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 265 

on the battle-fields of Inkermann and Balaklava. Look at 
her life-work, and compare it with Napoleon's. Which of 
the two was the nobler? 

EVERY- DAY HEROES. 

A steamer on Lake Michigan, crowded with passengers, 
caught fire, and while every effort was being made to extin- 
guish the flames, the captain ordered the pilot to head for 
land, and to '' hold fast to the helmr The fire was soon 
past all control. The passengers were terrified, as the 
flames were consuming all before them, and driving them 
into closer quarters. The only hope for them was in the 
pilot being able to remain at his post, and the engines 
to continue to work until land was reached. Flame and 
smoke enveloped the pilot-house, hiding the pilot from 
view. Every few moments the captain would call out to 
the pilot, ''John, are you there?" Every time came back 
the response, ''Aye, aye, sir." The wildest excitement per- 
vaded the passengers. The intense heat was narrowing 
down their chances of reaching land, and thereby escaping 
a terrible death by fire or water. Again the captain called 
to the pilot to know if he was there, and ''Aye, aye, sir," 
was heard above the roar of the flames. The captain asks, 
" Can you hold on five minutes longer? " The answer came 
back, '' By the help of God, I will try, sir." As the last 
passenger took the gang-plank and was safely on shore^ 
the heroic spirit of John Maynard went heavenward. 

A watchman on a draw-bridge knew that the express 
train was coming around the curve, just as his little boy 
had fallen from his side into the boiling current below. To 
save his child, or the train and its living freight, were the 
questions presented to him for immediate decision. The 
boy was struggling in the water, and calling to his father 



266 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

for help ; a moment more and the oncoming train will be 
thrown into the river, if the bridge is not closed. The 
watchman swings the bolts that move the draw; the train 
with its hundreds of passengers rushes on just as it closes, 
and is saved. The father looks for his boy, but he is gone 
— a sacrifice to duty. What more sublime instance of true 
heroism than this can be found ? 

In a village upon one side of the Alps lived a little crip- 
pled boy, by the name of Fritz. One day the villagers 
went out from their homes for a picnic. Fritz was too lame 
to go, and therefore he alone out of all the villagers re- 
mained at home. When the picnicers were in the height 
of their enjoyment, it was discovered that a ''signal fire" 
had been lighted above their village, which was the usual 
signal that an enemy was approaching. The villagers has- 
tened back to the village just in time to save their homes 
from despoliation. The mystery to them was, who could 
have "fired the pile." Fritz was missing from his home. 
The people searched everywhere for him, and at last he 
was discovered near the burning pile, dead ; killed by the 
invading horde, in revenge for having discovered their ap- 
proach and given the alarm. On his hands and knees he 
had crawled up the mountain side and lighted the signal 
fire. Was not he a greater hero than Napoleon Bonaparte? 

A TRUE HERO. 

The city of Marseilles, in France, was once afiflifted with 
the plague. So terrible was it that it caused parents to for- 
sake children, and children forgot their obligations to their 
own parents. The city became as a desert, and funerals 
were constantly passing through its streets. Everybody 
was sad, for nobody could stop the ravages of the plague. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 267 

The physicians could do nothing, and as they met one day 
to talk over the matter and see if something could not be 
done to prevent this great destruction of life, it was decided 
that nothing could be efifefted without opening a corpse in 
order to find out the mysterious chara6ler of the disease. 
All agreed upon the plan, but who shall be the vi6lim? — it 
being certain that he would die soon after. There was a 
dead pause. Suddenly one of the most celebrated physi- 
cians, a man in the prime of life, rose from his seat and 
said, '' Be it so ; J devote myself for the safety of my country. 
Before this numerous assembly I swear, in the name of 
humanity and religion, that to-morrow, at the break of day, 
I will disse61: a corpse, and write down as I proceed what I 
observe." He immediately left the room, and as he was 
rich, he made a will, and spent the night in religious exer- 
cises. During the day a man had died in his house of the 
plague, and at daybreak on the following morning the phy- 
sician, whose name was Guyon, entered the room, and crit- 
ically made the necessary examinations, writing down all 
his surgical observations. He then left the room, threw the 
papers into a vase of vinegar, that they might not convey 
the disease to another, and retired to a convenient place, 
where he died in twelve hours. Was not this a true hero? 
While we all admire the bravery which appears on the 
battle-field, let us not forget that there is opportunity for 
the heroic in other places as well. 

In the city of Paris several men were at work on a scaf- 
fold, many feet above the pavement. Suddenly the scaffold 
broke, and all but two of the men were dashed to pieces 
on the pavement below. These two men had caught hold 
of a ledge, and before_ they could be rescued from their per- 
ilous position, the ledge began to weaken. One man said 
18— 



268 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

to the other, '' I am an old man, and have several small 
children dependent on me for support; you let go.'* The 
young man says, ''Is that so?" "Yes," said the old man. 
The young man let go; and that night there was joy in one 
household when ''father came home." 

FRANK Hamilton's tragic death. 

A fire had broken out one night in a large block, and in 
a short time the whole building was enveloped in flames. 
After it had been abandoned, and the goods that could not 
be removed left to the flames, what was the horror of the 
spectators to see a young man rush past and run up a flight 
of stairs, amid fire and smoke, with the walls already totter- 
ing on their foundation, seeming ready to fall in a moment. 
The impression was that it was for a suicidal purpose that the 
young man rushed into the burning building as he did. In a 
moment or two he was seen coming down stairs with a little 
tin trunk in one hand, with his clothes on fire and his hair 
burned from his head. "What a fool," said one, "to jeop- 
ardize his life for that box, even were it full of gold." The 
young man had not got a safe distance when the building 
fell. He also fell, overcome with the excitement and unable 
to speak. The crowd gathered around him, and he was 
recognized as Frank Hamilton. They took him up in their 
arms and bore him tenderly to his home. All the while his 
right hand clutched firmly the handle of the box, and could 
not be unclasped. The only words he spoke were, " I saved 
my rep ," and died. It was six months before the mys- 
terious words, the unfinished sentence, could be completed, 
and how the five hundred dollars in the tin trunk came to 
be in his possession. Frank was a student in Mr. Lowe's 
law office. Mr. Lowe was away the day of the fire. Frank 
was alone in the office, and engaged in copying some court 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 269 

papers, which had to be completed that night. Soon after 
he opened the office a gentleman, a client of Mr. Lowe's, 
came up stairs hurriedly, and inquired for Mr. Lowe, and 
learning he was away, said to Frank, " You can do the bus- 
iness for me just as well. I have a note due to-morrow 
at the bank of five hundred dollars. As to-morrow is Sun- 
day, it must be paid to-day. Here is the money, and when 
the bank opens please pay the note, and hold it until I 
return. I am on my way to Boston by the first train, and 
am to sail for Liverpool at twelve o'clock. Good-bye." It 
is supposed that Frank, in his anxiety to have the papers 
completed before Mr. Lowe's return, forgot all about the 
note and money until he heard the alarm of fire. Then 
remembering the money was locked up in the office instead 
of the bank where he was to have deposited it, made the 
desperate and daring endeavor to save it, or die in the 
attempt, so that his reputation should not be tarnished by 
a breath of suspicion. He died a hero — a martyr — went 
down to his grave with a reputation unsullied. Over-work 
atoned for his apparent forgetting the note and money en- 
trusted to his care. He willingly put his life in the balance 
to correct a mistake of his life. The remembrance of such 
noble young men, like Frank Hamilton, who have chosen 
death to dishonor, will live, while the names of the low and 
vulgar will rot. Mrs. Hamilton's mind dwelt upon Frank's 
untimely and tragic death, and the more she grieved and 
mourned over it, the greater seemed the burden of her sor- 
row. His death, however, resulted in rescuing James Noxx 
(see pages 182-217) from his miserable abode and sur- 
roundings, and giving him a home with the Hamilton's. 

If *' to be living is sublime," is there not a sublimity in 
dying when it lifts a fellow-mortal from the mire to a higher 
and better life. 



270 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 



WHAT SHALL I LIVE FOR? 

" Be noble .' and the nobleness that lies in other men, sleeping but never dead, 
will rise in majesty to meet thine own." 

Many of our readers may ask, "What shall I live for?" 
We cannot answer this, the most important of all questions, 
better than by inserting the following lines : 

" WHAT I LIVE FOR. 

" I live for those who love me, 

For those I know are true, 
For the heaven that smiles above me 

And waits my spirit, too ; 
For all human ties that bind me, 
For the task my God assigned me. 
For the bright hopes left behind me. 

And the good that I can do, 

" I live to learn their story. 

Who've suffered for my sake, 
To emulate their glory, 

And follow in their wake : 
Bards, martyrs, patriots, sages. 
The noble of all ages. 
Whose deeds crown history's pages. 

And Time's great volume make. 

" I live to hail that season 

By gifted mind's foretold, 
When men shall live by reason, 

And not alone for gold ; 
When man to man united. 
And every wrong thing righted. 
The whole world shall be lighted, 

As Eden was of old. 

" I live to hold communion 

With all that is divine, 
To feel that there is union 

Twixt Nature's heart and mine ; 
To profit by afTfli6tion, 
Reap truth from fields of fi6tion, 
Grow wiser from conviction — 

Fulfilling God's design. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 271 

( 

'' I live for those who love me, 

For those that know me true, 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And awaits my spirit, too ; 
For the wrongs that need resistance. 
For the cause that needs assistance, 
For the future in the distance, 

And the good that I can do." 

Dr. Murray (" Kerwan") writes of visiting an old man of 
ninety years, who said to him, '' Do all the good you can, 
to all the people you can, in all the ways you can, and as 
long as you can.'' 

True glory consists in doing what deserves to be written ; in writing what 
deserves to be read, and in so living as to make the world happier and better for 
one living in it. — Pliny. 



SUBLIMITY OF A PURPOSE. 

He who lives to no purpose lives to a bad purpose. — Nevins. 

If we carefully investigate the works of nature, the heav- 
ens in their nightly grandeur, the celestial panorama, we 
are compelled to acknowledge that they are the work of a 
master hand — a divine architect, who spake, and a world 
is ushered forth from a night of chaos, and takes its place 
amid that vast system of circling orbs. Every atom of 
matter is permeated with life, infused with a ceaseless activ- 
ity. Nothing in this world of created matter is absolutely 
at rest, dead, or wrapped in an endless stupor, asleep — but 
every particle of dust beneath our feet is inspired with a 
life-giving force, working in perfect harmony with all cre- 
ated matter, accomplishing the will and carrying out a pur- 
pose complex and incomprehensible to finite minds. 

Each particle of matter is an immensity, each leaf a world, each inse6t an 
inexplicable compendium. — Lavater. 

That each thing, both in small and in great, fulfilleth the task which destiny 
has set down. * — Hippocrates. 



272 RENTS NE W COMMENT A R Y, 

Yet to man has been held out the "golden sceptre," free 
to every one who is willing to accept of so divine a gift — 
infinite, endowed with power to put under subjection all the 
subtle forces of the elements, bidding them pay tribute to 
the genius of man. What a field for exploration ! How 
vast, how boundless in resources! — limited only by the 
domain of the infinite. If it be true that the Creator has 
thus infused life into all created matter, giving to man such 
exalted possibilities, able to subjugate and control all the 
combined forces of nature, how unworthy is that man who, 
for a "mess of pottage," sells his birth-right to heaven-born 
privileges, to become a companion of "swine," to satisfy the 
cravings of hunger with "husks." If, then, the author of 
the world and systems of worlds had a plan, a purpose, from 
the beginning, from the eternity of the past, how vastly 
greater is the importance that finite man should have a 
well-defined plan, a pupose, to which all his efforts shall 
converge. Without such a plan or purpose no man can 
accomplish the best results. Carlyle puts it thus, "A man 
without a purpose is no man." The sublimity, the exalted 
position given to man, ought to inspire him to seek the 
highest good attainable, to make the most of his opportuni- 
ties, to be satisfied with nothing less. It is not enough to do 
as well as some one else has done, or is doing, but we must 
aim to do better work to be worthy of any merit. Because 
our fathers carried a stone in one end of the bag to balance 
the corn in the other, is no good reason why we should fol- 
low their ridiculous practices. Because they fell into a rut 
and followed it like a blind horse in a tread-mill, is one of 
the best of all reasons why we should get out of it. Every 
live young man, in dead earnest, must and will strike out 
for himself — hew out a pathway of his own, lay his own 
track. 



. RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 273 

THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA'S WAY OF BUILDING 
RAILROADS. 

The emperor of Russia gave orders to his civil engineer 
to build a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. The 
route was surveyed, and a diagram was made on a card, 
and submitted to the emperor for his approval. He glanced 
at it, and asked, "Why have you made so many crooks and 
curves in your line? Why have you not made it straight? " 
The chief engineer replied that it was to accommodate this 
village and that city along the route. The emperor turned 
the card over, made a dot for St. Petersburg and another 
for Moscow. Drawing a straight line from one to the other, 
he passed the card back to the engineer, and said, ''Build 
the road by that lineT Now the only line to success is the 
straight line. Settle the question once for all what shall be 
your purpose, what you propose shall be your life-work. 
Map out your plan — avoid all crooks and curves. You 
need no side-tracks, turn-outs, or switches — a single track. 
Every morning test your compass; every night reverse 
your instrument, and see if you have diverged from the 
''straight line!' Carefully note any variations from the 
original plan. 

INDEPENDENCE. 

" I believe neither in idols nor demons; I put my sole trust in my own strength 
of body and soul. 

Energy, invincible determination, v^ith a right motive, are the levers that 
move the world. — President Porter. 

The great thing for any young man to do is to strike for 
his freedom ; to think and act for himself; to be thoroughly 
emancipated from the superstitions and prejudices of the 
past and present. Have no side issues. Carry no ''dead 
weights." What some one else has done, or is doing, is for 



274 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

them to g"ive an account of, not you. The only question 
for you to settle is, "Am I on the ri^ht track, the straight 
line, on time? How does my progress compare with the 
opportunities within my reach. The world's advancement 
has only been accomplished by some one's breaking away 
from established customs. The great discoveries of the 
past were not made by the public, the masses, but often by 
some obscure individual, isolated from the " best society," 
who worked out some great problem in the solitude of his 
humble dwelling; and perhaps, when he was ready to make 
known to the world his discovery, it would be met with 
opposition and ridiculed as utterly impracticable — simply 
the result of some addle-headed, fanatical crank — a crazy 
idiot. 

CRAZY INVENTOR. 

De Caux, the inventor, was arrested as being a dangerous 
person to have his freedom, and consequently was locked 
up in prison. Yet through the prison bars he held out 
his model of the first steam engine, imploring the passing 
throng to stop and listen to his story, to examine his work 
to see if it looked like the work of a crazy man — a mad 
man. 

"pulton's folly." 

Robert Fulton built the first steamboat on the Hudson, 
the "Claremont," and it was called "Fulton's Folly," by 
those who thought themselves wondrous wise. Although 
it made a successful trial trip from New York city to Al- 
bany and back, yet for all that it was pronounced a failure, 
and that it could not be made to repeat the trip. It created 
consternation and terror among certain classes on its ap- 
proach. The most terrified besought providence to protect 
them from the horrid monster which was marching on the 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 275 

tides and lighting its path by fires which it vomited. Some 
of the vessels were run ashore to escape the awfiil monster. 
Passengers and crew on board of ships that could not reach 
the shore in time, hid themselves in the hold to escape the 
impending doom that seemed to be inevitable. There was 
one sensible woman, however, a farmer's wife, who hap- 
pened to step out of her house in the evening as the Cler- 
mont was passing. Seeing it, she cried out, "Husband! 
husband ! come out here, quick ! There is a saw-mill broke 
loose, and it's coming down the river!" 

Mr. Fulton, the builder, says, '' I never received a single 
encouraging remark, a bright hope, or a warm wish across 
my path." 

THE world's martyrs. 

He who has no opinion of his own, but depends upon the opinions and tastes 
of others, is a slave. — Klopstock. 

Every new discovery in science and art, as well as relig- 
ion, has encountered great hostility — the fiercest opposi- 
tion has been arrayed against all and every noble cause; 
and that too by those who verily believed that they were 
doing ''God's service." The great apostle in his masterly 
eloquence, his unanswerable and uncontrovertible facts, was 
pronounced ''mad." 

" These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." 

Socrates must drink the deadly hemlock because he be- 
lieved in the rights of the "individual conscience;" that the 
greatest of all knowledge was to "know thyself" 

Copernicus did not dare announce his great discovery, 
one that had baffled the savans of the ages, for fear of per- 
secution. Thirteen long years he had kept the profound 
secret to himself that the sun was the great center of a 
great solar system ; that the earth revolved around the sun. 
He modestly gave it as a mere "hypothesis." 



276 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

PALISSY, THE POTTER. 

Bernard Palissy, the potter, was burdened with a great 
thought which could only be proved or worked out by a 
fire test. This he proposed to do, but before the test was 
completed his fuel w^as exhausted. His last penny had been 
spent for wood. Fuel he must have, or his fire would go 
out, and he would be a ruined man financially. A thous- 
and times had he experimented, and yet the secret was not 
his — the ceramic art. His last trial, his all, was in his oven 
— and where was the fuel to come from to intensify the heat 
in his fiery furnace? There was no time to be lost, and 
without a moment's delay he resolved what to do. He 
caught up his axe, and as fast as he could reduce his house- 
hold furniture into kindling-wood it was thrown into the 
furnace. Every box and chest was sacrificed to the fiery 
god. Still the work was not completed. Amid the tears 
and pleadings of his wife and children, the jeers and ridi- 
cule of his stupid neighbors, he began cutting his house 
into fire-wood to feed his furnace. In spite of his rags, his 
hungry and starving family, in utter despair — poverty- 
stricken — yet relentlessly the work of destruction went on. 
With what intense interest he now watched the glowing 
heat of his furnace as it became more intensified by fresh 
supplies of fuel. At last, like a magic, he saw the dream of 
his life realized. Exultantly he exclaimed, "I have got it! 
I have got it!" 

Who would not have felt proud to have stood beside that 
"crazy old fool" as from his oven he drew forth its five 
hundred cups and saucers, its bowls and pitchers and beau- 
tiful vases, bright and shining, like a new mirror. The 
enamelling process was a success ; the ceramic art perfected. 
From that day to this the world has been paying tribute 



KENT'S NE W COMMENTAR Y. 277 

to the genius of a man who had a purpose to accompHsh — 
and who accompHshed it. 

Yet, for all this, Bernard Palissy died in a felon's cell, for 
no crime. You who sip your tea and coffee from " French 
China," think what it cost Bernard Palissy to bring it to 
perfection. 

Columbus was impressed with a sublime thought, and the 
more he reflected upon it the heavier it weighed upon his 
mind, and he could not dispel it from his thoughts. It was 
the burden of his soul night and day. He was anxious to 
solve this great problem, for he saw unmistakable evidences 
that there was an "undiscovered country" peopled by. an 
unknown race. He longed to see and tread upon its soil, 
to know its bounds, its products, its wonders, its wealth. 
He wanted to become acquainted with its inhabitants, and 
learn their origin, their history. To this end all his ener- 
gies were concentrated for the accomplishment of this h/e 
purpose. 

Yet with what indifference and ridicule his theories and 
deductions were received, not by the ignorant, but by the 
best scholars of the age. For twenty long years, to him, 
was this unsolved problem crowding upon his thoughts 
night and day in all these years, to him almost overwhelm- 
ing in its magnitude, yet every day increasing his convic- 
tions that his theory was based upon unmistakable facts. 
Yet what trials and discouragements and disappointments 
awaited him before he was permitted to sail for that un- 
known port ! Then when his hopes and anticipations were 
just on the eve of being realized, a rebellious and cowardly 
crew demanded that he should turn his ships homeward. 
Probably not one man in a million could have carried so 
successful an issue as that achieved by Columbus. It was 



278 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

his indomitable perseverance, will-power, that no obstacle 
could impede or block up his way to a final triumph of a 
well-chosen, well-defined life purpose. Think of the re- 
wards that awaited that grand old hero, robbed at last of 
his hard-earned laurels, treated like a felon ! For all that, 
the name of Columbus will live when monuments of other 
heroes shall have crumbled into dust and been scattered to 
the four winds of heaven. 

THE IMPASSABLE BARRIER. 

The miner prosecutes his work by the light of a lamp on 
his cap. If his light goes out, he is compelled to cease 
work. The man of science prosecutes his investigations, 
works on until he comes to the conclusion that he has ex- 
hausted the subject of his research, when, in fact, it is the 
oil in his lamp that has become exhausted, having reached 
the limit of his powers. Then a new man comes to the front, 
fresh and vigorous, with his lamp full to the brim, well- 
trimmed, and burning like a flaming torch. He is prepared 
to take up the work where the old philosopher left it. Like 
the standard-bearer, who, when his comrade falls, catches 
up the falling colors and presses on, supported by the 
invincible columns that support the advance of each ad- 
vancing picket line — so the world's progress is carried for- 
ward, and the great clock of the ages marks a new epoch 
in the onward, upward march to a nobler and grander civ- 
ilization. 

The movement of the species is upward, irresistibly upward. — Bancroft. 

The advance picket lines, the discoverers, are always a 
long way in advance of the rank and file — the masses. A 
century intervenes between the front and rear columns. 
The old philosophers die hard. If any one attempts to 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 279 

pass over their discoveries, they are ready to cry out, 
" Halt! It's the height of presumption for you, young man, 
to attempt to go beyond my investigations. I have been 
fifty years developing and establishing my discoveries in 
this one line, which you now propose to question, assuming 
to set aside or overthrow the labors of a life-time. I must 
and will protest against such assumptions. My advice to 
you, young man, is that you wait until your crude ideas are 
toned down a little. It becomes a youth to respe6l age. 
When you have seen as many years of service as I have, 
you will not be quite as fresh and eager to rush into deep 
water. Better keep near the shore until you can swim." 

Great men of all ages — men who are entitled to great 
consideration for good and faithful work done — dislike 
to be reminded of the faft that possibly they have out- 
lived their usefulness. They dread to be compelled to 
stand aside, to be ''laid on the shelf" But there is no help 
for it. The world started on its sublime march more than 
six thousand centuries ago; on its forward movement on 
that irresistible line of an endless progression, sweeping 
on down into the vistas of the eternities. It is the irrevo- 
cable fiat of Him who ''spake and it was done." The uni- 
versal law of ceaseless activity, progression, went into force 
on the morning of creation — "let there be light," has 
never been repealed. 

Too many are like the Brahmin who was asked to look 
at a drop of water through a miscroscope. Horror of hor- 
rors! it was alive! He wanted to examine that "curious 
instrument." He asked, " Is there any more in the country 
like it?" "No; this is the only one." He seized the mi- 
croscope, and smashed it to pieces on a rock. "You have 
destroyed my piece of mind forever more. "To him "igno- 
rance was bliss." 



280 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

But the *' handwriting is upon the wall." Sooner or later 
the order will come for those in front to '^halt," and the 
** long march" will be over. We remember of reading of 
only one great man, who, on taking a retrospective view of 
a long and useful life, could say, in childish simplicity, " It 
seems to me that like a child I have been only at play with 
the shells along the shore of that great ocean of truth that 
lay before me all undiscovered." That was what that great 
philosopher Sir Isaac Newton, the discoverer of the laws of 
gravitation, said, who solved the greatest problem of the 
ages. 

OPPOSITION. 

There is nothing stronger than human prejudice. — Wendell Phillips. 

Every great enterprise has been met with the most stub- 
born opposition, and that, too, most frequently by men 
claiming to be ''scientific." When it was proposed to lay 
an ocean cable, it was at once pronounced a most absurd 
proposition. '' Why every school-boy knows better." ''The 
idea of laying a telegraph-wire on the ocean's bed is only 
an illustration of ignorance of the laws of the ele6lrical 
currents." The projeftors had a definite purpose in view, 
and despite the ridicule that was heaped upon their unsci- 
entific a6l, they proposed to carry out their purpose ; and 
although it required nearly ten years to perfe6l the system, 
it was accomplished, and six ocean cables are now required 
to do the business. 

Edison, in his younger days, was studying the laws of 
eleftricity; experimenting with some rude appliances, the 
best he could afford. They were kicked out of doors, and 
he with them. A great thought had found lodgment in his 
mind which he could not banish. It must be worked out. 
The great purpose of his life was to solve some of the hid- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 281 

den mysteries of that subtle fluid. ''A boy's thoughts are 
long, long thoughts." Edison has been experimenting for a 
decade, and he says that ^' every day, almost, some wise man 
rises and calls me a fool." 

Despite the ridicule heaped upon him by those who 
pretend to be "masters" of the laws of eleftricity, Edison 
does not swerve one iota, or Felax his efforts in the smallest 
degree, but steadily works on. I/zs life purpose is mani- 
festly well-defined. The world is just beginning to realize 
that instead of electricity being a deadly enemy to the 
human race, it is a most obedient servant, when treated 
intelligently. 

Another lesson the world has learned is that to experi- 
ment with the subtle fluid is not ''tempting providence." 
So the name of Edison is added to the list of illustrious 
names of the world's benefactors. Millions upon mil- 
lions of dollars of wealth have been added to the world's 
assets by his indefatigable labors to a sublime purpose. 
How numerous are the aspirants, anxious to draw divi- 
dends from other men's hard-earned discoveries — steal 
their profits and reap the honors. There are those who are 
always ready to set up ''prior claims" — ante-date their 
discoveries. As a rule, every inventor has had a mighty 
struggle to hold his hard-earned laurels. A battle with 
the elements to "harness them up" and bid them pay 
tribute to the genius of man, was nothing in comparison to 
the conflict with the "pirates," — the systematic efforts of 
these "vandals," combined with those who ought to help 
every man in his philanthropic efforts to bless the human 
race by every possible labor-saving appliance, instead of 
persistently trying to crush one who dares to precipitate a 
revolution in any long-established theory, however anti- 
quated, regardless of its merits. 



282 * RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

THE DISCOVERER OF THE PLANET VULCAN. ^ 

The high priest of science, the director of the imperial 
observatory of Paris, received a letter from a "country doc- 
tor," living in a remote rural district, stating that he had 
discovered the planet Vulcan. This high priest of science 
lost no time in visiting this unknown astronomer; and this 
is the way he introduced his business: "Is it you, sir, who 
pretend to have discovered the intra-mercurial planet, and 
who has committed the grave offense of keeping your ob- 
servations secret for nine months? I have to tell you that 
I come with the intention of exposing your pretentions, 
and demonstrating your great delusion, if not dishonesty. 
Where is your chronometer, sir? What! with that old 
watch, marking only minutes! Do you dare to speak of 
estimating seconds?" 

In spite of the efforts of this high priest of science to 
crush him, the "country doctor" was decorated with the 
order of the " Legion of Honor." 

" Can anything good come out of Nazareth? " 
COMMUNISM. 

From the day the first spindle and shuttle were propelled 
by power, to this very day, there has been, and is, a contin- 
ual and bitter warfare being waged against all labor-saving 
machines. Millions upon millions of dollars worth of prop- 
erty has been destroyed by those who are bitterly op- 
posed to any and all improvements that they may claim to 
be trenching upon their assumed prerogatives. Mills have 
been burned, mines destroyed, railroads torn up, bridges 
blown up, devastion and death have followed, and held 
high carnival where these vandals were in force. 

The western farmer is dictated as to how he shall harvest 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 283 

his grain. " If you cut your wheat with a reaper, we will 
burn it in the stack." And they have done so repeatedly. 
Yet without the modern harvester it would be impossible 
to supply the world with bread. 

Time and space will not allow us to notice but a few of the 
thousand ways in which every great enterprise has been 
challenged and fought at every advancing step, not only 
by the ignorant and vicious, but by men who have styled 
themselves "liberal." Wendell Phillips has said that every 
advancement of the world to a higher civilization has been 
from "scaffold to scaffold, from stake to stake." The world 
has been deluged in blood every step upward — passing 
through the crimson gore. 

REVOLUTION AMONG THE M. D.'s. 

Fifty years ago the regular practice of medicine was 
entirely different from the methods of to-day. Bleeding 
was then the great thing to do — drawing from the patient 
the best blood that coursed through his veins ; dose him 
with calomel, jalap, assafoetida, etc. Emetics were freely 
given, and were never wanting in potency. Blisters from 
head to foot were not destitute of "power to draw," to the 
satisfaction of the patient, as they would usually bring him 
to a "feeling sense" of the desperate situation he was in. 
When a poor patient was burning up with fever, not a drop 
of cold water or ice would be allowed the sick man to cool 
the burning fever within, or a breath of fresh air from 
without. A patient who survived such a course of treat- 
ment was blessed with a "powerful constitution." That 
style of pra6lice was on a par with the way the " medicine 
man" practices to-day in India. If, after exhausting his 
ordinary remedies, the patient does not recover from his 
19— 



284 KENT'S NE W COMMENT A R Y. 

illness, the "medicine man" goes to the druggist and 
orders a compound made, embracing a portion of every 
kind of medicine in his shop. ''One hundred and sixty 
kinds" go into the prescription. If the patient is "to be 
•cured," the right medicine will surely reach his case. But 
if he dies, it is because "his time has come." Very con- 
soHng to his friends, and highly creditable to the "doftor." 
Before the discovery of the circulation of the blood, by 
Harvey, it was the practice of surgeons in those da.ys when 
cutting off a limb to use red-hot irons to sear over the sev- 
ered blood-vessels. Such barbarity would not be tolerated 
in this age of the world. Dr. Jenner was the first to rob 
small-pox of its loathsomeness and horror by innoculation. 
After having made the discovery he continued his investi- 
gations for twenty years before announcing it to the public. 
Yet "it was almost universally denounced by physicians 
and the clergy, and often times in the severest language." 
To-day a man who does not believe in the Jenner theory is 
either a fool or an idiot. Surely the world has advanced in 
the treatment of the "ills that human flesh is heir to." 

"the old meeting-house that stood on 

THE hill." 

There was a time when it was a dreadful thing to have a 
stove in the "meeting-house." The men or women who 
could not sit comfortable without a fire, on the coldest day 
in the winter, and pay good attention to a sermon one hour 
and forty minutes long, might well question their title to 
heaven. The "meeting-houses" of those days were not 
much better than ordinary barns for comfort. A story is 
told where the majority voted for the " unsan6lified stove," 
against the earnest protest of the minority. The stove was 
purchased and carried into the meeting-house. The fol- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 285 

lowing Sunday was a bitter cold day. It was not long 
before there was a commotion among the worshippers. 
One of the objectors, an ancient maiden lady, had not 
been long in her seat before she began to feel ''dreadfully 
oppressed." " The heat of that stove is overcoming me." 
She fainted, and had to be carried out into the fresh air to 
bring her to. She wartted to be "taken home." ''I never 
can endure that stove." But the joke of it was, that Ike 
stove had not been set up for want of pipe. 

Fate is the friend of the good, the guide of the wise, the tyrant of the foolish, 
the enemy of the bad. — W. R. Alger. 

For the noblest man that lives there still remains a confli6t. 

— P^'esident Garfield. 

We have said what we have to illustrate the importance 
of having a life purpose, and then to adhere to it with a 
pertinacity that knows of no compromise, with an inflexible 
will that knows of no surrender — able to outride all oppo- 
sition. To do this you must learn, first of all, to conquer 
self — the most obstinate and wily antagonist that can suc- 
cessfully thwart your plans. 

No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself. — Thos. A. Kempes. 
The most powerful is he who has himself in his power. — Seneca 

" He conquers who conquers himself." 

When you have self well disciplined you will be prepared 
to combat with the most formidable and relentless foe that 
may dare to challenge your inalienable rights of thinking 
and a6ling for yourself — of daring to step outside of a 
beaten track; the right to investigate in or out of pre- 
scribed rules and practices laid down by. the "standard 
authorities." But to do this successfully you must prepare 
for it — for it means work, hard work, year in and year out. 
There must be no skipping or dodging any task, however 
uninteresting or disagreeable it may seem. 



286 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

THE STUDENT. 

Whatever you win in life you must conquer by your own efforts, and then it is 
yours — a part of yourself. — President Garfield. 

One student ignores chemistry — ''too dry for me." His 
comrade says, '' I see by the papers that there is not an 
article of food that has not been successfully adulterated. 
I want to know what I eat and drink. I want to know how 
to test all the articles that are in daily use for food, as well 
as. the water I drink. My success in life will depend upon 
my having a good sound constitution, and that depends in 
a great measure on what I eat. It will pay me to know this 
much, I am sure. Then I want to know something about 
the arts, and unless 1 have a knowledge of chemistry I can- 
not. There is my Uncle John. He is a chemist at one of 
the great corporations at Lawrence, Massachusetts, and has 
a salary of fifteen thousand dollars a year. He says experts 
get from five to ten thousand dollars a year. I mean to be 
a good chemist. I have a good teacher, and the time. 
That's my purpose." 

The other replies, '' I'll take my chances on getting poi- 
soned. No chemistry for me." Yet a good practical knowl- 
edge of chemistry and mineralogy is a greater fortune to a 
young man than to be president of the United States. 

Another classmate says, ''What's the use of studying 
fractions?" and so shuts up his book and passes his time 
in idleness, letting the golden opportunities pass — hours 
laden with untold wealth. A capital that might be a fort- 
une is lost, the magnitude of which is not computable by 
any human arithmetic. His classmate wastes no time in 
idleness; masters every example he comes to, and is only 
anxious to find something more difficult. One proposes to 
do his best; the other to do the least — anything to "kill 



KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, 287 

time." One goes up in the scale, and the other descends. 
One is faithful to every trust, gaining friends wherever he 
goes; the other meets with disappointment, and the gulf 
that separates them is ever widening — bridgeless, and must 
forever remain so. "Just my luck," says the purposeless 
young man, as he sees his former classmate steadily ad- 
vancing from one position to another with a better salary. 
"He always was a lucky fellow." Luck! there was no luck 
about it. Instead of skipping fractions, he was only too 
happy to wrestle with the most complex. That was why 
his services were worth five thousand dollars a year to some 
New York banker; or perhaps twenty-five thousand dollars 
a year to some great railroad corporation (the present sal- 
ary of half a dozen railroad presidents in this country). 
The luck was in being prepared for the position when the 
vacancy occurred. Good positions do not come by lot, or 
accident, or chance. Every young man who wills to be a 
man will be one, and no accident can frustrate his purpose. 
Luck and chance play no part in the accomplishment of a 
well-chosen life purpose. 

There is no a6lion of man in this life which is not the beginning of so long a 
chain of consequences as that no human providence is high enough to give us 
a prospe6l to the end. — Thomas Malmesbury . 

The mighty possibilities of a successful life are often 
poised on a very slight pivot. Opportunities of the most 
momentous consequence are frequently narrowed down to 
an almost imperceptible point. It is ''yes" or ''no" that 
settles the destiny of many a young man. Opportunities 
of the greatest magnitude are thus briefly passed upon. 
Opportunities never to be repeated demand the highest con- 
sideration when they come. 

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fear- 
ing to attempt. -- Shakspeare. 



288 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

THE MYSTERIES OF THE CENTURIES. 

Looking down the vista of the past, miUions of years 
before the earth was prepared for the habitation of man, 
nature's great laboratory was at work, working for the ac- 
comphshment of a purpose, the importance and magni- 
tude of which far surpass all human computation. Change 
upon change, transformation after transformation, unseen 
by mortal vision, goes on, until the final accomplishment of 
a plan or purpose, inaugurated millions of years before, to 
meet the demands of civilization, millions of years down 
the vista of the coming ages. The great mountains become 
store-houses of an inexhaustible wealth, only waiting for the 
necessities of man to unlock their doors and bear away the 
treasures. The mountains " drop fatness." The ''red man" 
of the forest, the ''medicine man," is the first to bottle up 
the fluid from the overflowing fountains. "Seneca oil" was 
the matchless sanative for all the ills that afiflifted the "red 
man," and the white man's remedy for "aches and pains." 
The secret was with the Seneca Indians a century before 
"kerosene oil" was of any commercial value. 

"Black diamonds" were discovered in vast quantities in 
the mountain fastness — valueless to all human appearance. 
The genius of man — one man — was on the alert to. solve 
the hidden secrets, the "whys and wherefores." By exper- 
imenting he finds these diamonds to be rich in carbon, 
capable of generating intense heat when "fired." He finds 
the mountains are one vast store-house of fuel. He invites 
his friends to witness the demonstration of his theory by a 
fire test ; and although they felt the intense heat as it radi- 
ated from the open grate, yet they pronounced it a hum- 
bug, and the delineator an imposter. "It's nothing but 
black stone, and it won't burn without fuel to make it burn." 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 289 

That ''black stone" is the anthracite coal of to-day. How 
marvellous, how grand and sublime the thought, that our 
homes are made delightful on a "winter's night" by the 
warm rays of the sun that fell upon the earth millions of 
years ago, gathered up and stored away in nature's vast 
store-house, awaiting our coming ! One of the unanswer- 
able proofs that there was a Supreme Diftator, whose pur- 
poses are unfolding each and every moment of time in this 
life's mysterious drama. 

Slumber not in the tents of your fathers : 
The world is advancing — advance with it. 

— Mazzini. 

Yes, the world is advancing. The dawn of the new era 
has appeared. Its light is beaming from out of the cham- 
bers of the morning, pencilling the heavens with its coming 
glory. The age of barbarism, of caste, of superstition, is 
passing away into the everlasting night of oblivion, where 
no resurre6lion awaits it. They who are in advance, on the 
mountain top, are the first to welcome its coming and 
catch the inspiration, and herald in the new era. The 
great wheels of time are silently moving on in their sub- 
lime grandeur, keeping time in unbroken cadences to the 
"music of the spheres." Each revolution enhances human 
possibilities, lifting the human race upward to a grander, 
nobler civilization. We must keep pace with the advance, 
or be crushed beneath its ponderous wheels. We might as 
well shut our eyes and say that the sun was blotted from 
the heavens, as that the present age has reached or ever 
will reach the other shore of that illimitable ocean bounded 
by the infinite. It is utterly impossible to banish the light 
of each new era, or circumvent its coming, as it would be 
to dam a thousand Niagaras with a bull-rush. The great 
wheels of time cannot be stopped or reversed. It is the 



290 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

ever-present — that inexorable now — that is stamping the 
future of the young men of this generation. To-day is 
the index of j/our to-morrow. What you are to-day you 
will be to-morrow. The seed you planted yesterday you 
are reaping the first fruits thereof now — to-day. The seed- 
time and harvest are perpetual, unlike the seasons, and 
''what shall the harvest be" — your harvest? 

Fly the pleasure that bites to-morrow. — George Herbert. 



EXAMPLES OF MEN WHO HAVE LIVED FOR 
A PURPOSE. 

HORACE MAYNARD — SETTING HIS MARK HIGH. 

'' Soon after the late Horace Maynard entered Amherst 
college he put on the door of his room a large letter V. 
Its presence exposed him to questions and ridicule, but 
paying no attention to either, he kept the letter in its place. 
At the end of four years graduation day came, and Mr. 
Maynard was appointed to deliver the valedictory. After 
having received the compliments of the faculty and students 
for the honor he had received, Mr. Maynard called the 
attention of his fellow-graduates to the letter V over the 
door of his room, and asked if they then understood what 
was meant by the letter V. After short refle6lion, they 
answered, 'Yes; valedi6lory.' He replied, 'You are right.' 
His fellows then asked if he had the valedi6lory on his 
mind when he pasted the letter over his door. Mr. May- 
Maynard replied, 'Assuredly I had.'" — Boston Journal. 

JOHNS Hopkins's purpose. 

"Johns Hopkins commenced business in Baltimore with 
only four hundred dollars. With that sum and his own 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 291 

exertions he built up a colossal fortune. He had a purpose 
at the start, and worked day and night until he had accu- 
mulated the means necessary to carry out his magnificent 
design. The secret of his plans he would not reveal until 
he had accomplished everything he deemed important in 
connection therewith. From the beginning he declared 
that he had a mission from God to increase his store, and 
that the golden flood which poured into his coffers did not 
belong to the hundreds who sought to borrow or beg it 
from him. They called him an 'old miser,' 'old skin-flint,' 
'mean,' 'stingy,' and every opprobrious epithet they could 
think of But it was all the same to him, for he had a 
grander use and purpose for his millions than feeding pro- 
fessional beggars. Four millions were given to endow a free 
hospital in Baltimore. Three millions were given to endow 
the Johns Hopkins university, near Baltimore. He left in 
all nine millions for these institutions. The unfortunates 
who may be sick, have a place to go, where without money 
they will be tenderly cared for, while the young men who 
are seeking an education will be most liberally assisted. 
Think of the thousands of young men down to the end of 
time who will reap the benefits of Johns Hopkins carrying 
out the magnificent purpose he had planned early in his 
business career. 

"There is nothing like having a well-devised plan, and 
then, let what will come, sticking to the plan. No one can 
engage in any work without incurring opposition. People 
are selfish, and are ever ready to beg for help, either finan- 
cially or otherwise, and when they do not obtain it of those 
they ask, they turn around and ridicule them and call them 
mean. But no one can succeed if he is to be influenced by 
every wind that blows. Let no one quail or tremble because 



292 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

of opposition. A little opposition is a good thing." — From 
Kenfs New Commentary, a Manual for Young Ladies. 

THE WRECKER. 

''Many years ago there lived on the Atlantic coast a man 
who followed the life of a wrecker. One dark and stormy 
night he led his horse to a high and rocky cliff overlooking 
the sea. Tying his lantern to the horse's head, he led him 
round and round in a circle throughout the night. The 
winds shrieked and howled, while the roar of the breakers 
as the waves rolled shoreward and dashed against the 
rocky cliff was deafening and terrible, even to those safe 
on shore. But what terror to the poor sailors who might 
not have reached a harbor of safety, and are held in the 
cruel arms of the storm-king in his wrath. All night the 
storm raged ; all that long night the wrecker led his horse 
around on the circling beat, hoping that the light of his 
lantern might be seen by some poor sailor on the watch for 
a haven of safety, and take bearings from the light of his 
lantern. It was a beacon light for the sailors, to guide 
them in their course, and also to warn them of their close 
proximity to a dangerous reef, and thus pointing out the 
way to avoid being driven upon the rocks. Was not the 
wrecker a noble-hearted man, full of sympathy for the 
poor tempest-tossed, mariner, to thus face a furious storm, 
keeping his lantern well -trimmed and burning through a 
fearful tempest, trembling perhaps for fear his lantern might 
go out, or its light grow dim, and not be seen in time; or 
fearing his strength might fail him before the night would 
be gone? What if he should hear above the roar of the 
tempest the piercing wail of some unfortunate, in despair, 
crying for help ? What a night of fearful forebodings was 
that! — and no one but a veteran could have endured such 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 293 

a fearful tempest. But this wrecker had no such tender 
feelings for the sailor. He was a base wretch, hardened in 
crime. His light was a false light, hung out not to save, 
but to deceive, to decoy, to entrap, any passing ship that 
might see the light, to draw them from their only safe 
course into the very jaws of death, to be caught by the 
breakers and driven upon the rocks and dashed to pieces. 
His stratagem was in counterfeiting the revolving lights of 
the government light-house twenty miles away. In the 
gray of the morning he peered anxiously out into the misty 
darkness that hung over the troubled waters. To the joy 
of his heart, the outline of a stranded wreck appeared amid 
the breakers. His diabolical plan had worked its purpose 
only too well. The coveted prize was there. Impatiently 
he watched it, and waited for the sea to become quiet, that 
he might gather in the spoils before the wreck went to 
pieces. On the third day he rowed out in his boat and 
cautiously approached the ill-fated ship, fearing that the 
work of death had not been complete. At last he ventured 
on board, and as he stepped on deck he listened, but all 
was still as the grave. Stealthily he crept down the cabin 
stairs, looking into every berth and bunk, fearing he might 
find some one alive. When he had satisfied himself that he 
was there alone, the sole possessor of its treasures, he was 
overjoyed, and with a fiendish delight he went to work 
gathering up the rich spoils. In his excitement and haste 
he stumbled over a corpse, and as he fell his eye caught 
sight of a massive gold ring upon the hand of the dead 
man, as he lay stretched out upon the deck. He lifted up 
the hand to snatch off' the ring, and as he did so the eyes 
of the dead man seemed to be fixed upon him. He looked 
at the body, and then at the ring. He discovered a name 



294 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

upon the inside of the latter. He read it, and then looked 
again at those glaring eyes that could not escape him. He 
trembled like an aspen, in moftal agony. The prostrate 
form was that of his own son! He had been absent for 
several years in a foreign country, and was now on his 
return home. Just as he was nearing his native land, his 
boyhood home, he dies in sight of it, by the cruel hands of 
his own father. Choosing a wicked purpose is like a two- 
edged sword, it cuts both ways." — From Kent's New Com- 
mentary^ a Manual for You?ig Ladies. 

SAVED FROM THE WRECK. 

'' In the fall of 1880, at Rogers Park station, on the North- 
western railroad, a few miles north of Chicago, a Mr. Beck- 
ler, a printer by trade, was returning home from church, at 
about nine o'clock on a Sunday evening. A terrific thun- 
der-storm was passing over at the time, and the rain was 
coming down in torrents, the wind blowing a gale — almost 
a tornado — the flashes of lightning were vivid, while the 
almost incessant roll of the thunder was awful and sublime. 
Just as Mr. Beckler was crossing the railroad track, there 
came a flash of lightning, and by its intense brilliancy and 
prolonged duration, Mr. Beckler was able to notice down 
the track an obstru6lion, and he went down to see what it 
was. ^ There had been left standing on the side-track some 
freight-cars, with brakes firmly set, but by the force of the 
wind they had been driven down the track to the switch, 
and the front wheels of the forward car had jumped the 
track and become imbedded between the ties on the main 
line. Mr. Beckler lost not a moment's time, but hastened 
to the residence of the station-agent and aroused him, and 
they hurried down to the station and put out a danger sig- 
nal as quickly as possible to warn the coming train — which 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 295 

was already past due — of the danger. The train was an 
unusually heavy one, and very crowded — many passengers 
being compelled to stand up. It was also behind time, and 
running at a speed of not less than fifty miles an hour, and 
was not to stop at this station, 

" Fortunately the engineer discovered the signal in time, 
and thus a fearful catastrophe was averted. The trainmen 
and the passengers felt a gratitude to Mr. Beckler they 
could not express in words. The railroad company gave 
Mr. Beckler a life pass over their road, to show that they 
appreciated his timely services. Few men at any time 
would have noticed the situation, and how rare would it be 
to find a duplicate of Mr. Beckler? Who would, on such 
a night, in such a tempest, have gone one step out of his 
way for any railroad company, or for any man ? 

'' Compare this a6lion with that of the wrecker. Each had 
a purpose ; one was to wreck, the other to save from wreck. 
Compare the happiness of each. One dying of remorse, 
haunted nightly with fearful dreams — the glaring eyes of 
his son ever fastened on him, and no escaping from the ter- 
rible ordeal, the punishment he must endure for that one 
crime alone. Mr. Beckler will have a life-long satisfaction 
as he recalls the incidents of that night. The purpose 
which a(?tuated him and the purpose which aftuated the 
wrecker, as illustrated by these incidents, exhibit the char- 
after of each in its true light, and need no comment from 
us. We leave the reader to draw his own conclusions. 
Their aims, how wide apart! Each had a purpose, and 
was working for its accomplishment." — From Kent's New 
CoTUfnentary , a Manual for Young Ladies. 



296 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 

PETER COOPER, THE GREAT PHILANTHROPIST. 

The late Peter Cooper, the great philanthropist, of New 
York city, presents to young men who think their road a 
hard one to travel, an example worthy of careful study, 
illustrating, as it does, what one earnest young man accom- 
plished for himself and the world. Peter Cooper's early 
life was one of labor and struggle, as it is with most of our 
successful men of this country. His educational advan- 
tages were limited to a half of each day for a single year. 
The other half was given to hard work "at the bench" in 
his father's hat shop. Beyond this very humble instruction 
his acquisitions were all his own. 

At the age of seventeen he was apprenticed to a carriage 
maker. It was not long before he began to feel the need of 
a better education. He longed to find a way whereby his 
aspirations and hopes might be gratified. In vain he sought 
to find an institution where he could gain such instruction 
as he felt the need of in his daily toil. There were no night 
schools, no reading-rooms, no free libraries, no free lect- 
ures, open to young apprentices or mechanics. They, as 
a class, had no social standing. The majority of appren- 
tices were "bound out" to hard and often unfeeling "task- 
masters," treated but little better than brutes, while the 
sons of the rich were lavishly provided with the best social 
advantages, the best that wealth and position could com- 
mand. The best lectures, the best musical entertainments, 
the best libraries, the homes of the opulent, opened to the 
"knock" of these favored sons. The doors of the best col- 
leges and universities were ever open to welcome them to 
the best they had to offer. All this weighed heavy upon the 
mind of young Cooper. To apprentices and the "greasy 
mechanics" he saw over the doors of these institutions the 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 297 

omnious handwriting, " Positively no admittance here." It 
stirred his great sympathetic soul to the lowest depths. 
This proscription, this galling yoke of bondage, must and 
shall be broken if ''I am prospered." He forecast a plan 
in his mind whereby this much neglected and despised 
class might be lifted up and out of their unhappy condition 
— to have the opportunities of becoming "masters of the 
situation," instead of slaves, to be able to compete with the 
best educated talent of the world. This was the life plan of 
Mr. Cooper, an object to which all his efforts converged. 
The iron had pierced his soul, and he was in dead earnest. 
He was awake to the magnitude of this great undertaking, 
and gave it his untiring energies, body and soul. He was 
well aware of the heavy burdens that he must carry, years 
of hard work before his most sanguine hopes and expecta- 
tions could be realized. But it came. Fortune smiled upon 
the indefatigable labors of Mr. Cooper. 

In 1854 he saw the foundation laid of that noble struct- 
ure, the Cooper Institute, located at the junction of Third 
and Fourth avenues, New York city. Dedicated, *'To be 
devoted forever to the union of art and science in their 
application to the useful purposes of life." Here the poor 
apprentice, the '^greasy mechanic," young men, and young 
women without money, without price, are welcomxC to all its 
advantages. Its great library of ten thousand volumes, the 
best papers and magazines of the world are there. Fifteen 
hundred daily visit the reading-rooms to gain intellectual 
food. The great hall, with a seating capacity of two thous- 
and people, is thrown open on Saturday nights, where free 
lectures are given on subjects best adapted to the masses. 
In its art schools the best instructors are employed, where 
engineering, drafting, drawing, chemistry, natural philos- 
ophy, painting, telegraphy, etc., are taught. 



298 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, 

The cost to maintain this great institution is over fifty- 
thousand dollars a year. How comes it that such an insti- 
tution has been so munificently endowed ? Simply because 
one poor struggling apprentice boy felt the want of some 
such an institution, struggling in poverty to earn his bread 
during the days of his bondage, his great heart all the 
while beating in sympathy for those who were slaves of toil 
like himself A magnificent conception munificently con- 
summated. Mr. Cooper did not forget his bondage in the 
days of his affliction, when fortune smiled. He remem- 
bered all and his vow, and sacredly fulfilled it — and more. 
We venture to say that a happier man never walked the 
streets of New York than was Mr. Cooper when he saw the 
perfection of all his preconceived plans in successful opera- 
tion. In his declining years it was Mr. Cooper's delight to 
visit the institute daily and witness the earnest students 
hard at work, making the most of their opportunities. It 
will never be known how many worthy applicants were 
permitted to complete their studies who had not a dollar to 
pay for their board. Mr. Cooper's heart never grew cold 
and callous. 

How does such a life compare with the great railroad 
manipulators, whose coffers are filled from the hard earn- 
ings of the laborer, the mechanic, the savings of the widow 
and the orphan? Compare Mr. Cooper's life work with 
those who count their wealth by millions. Whose name 
will be cherished — embalmed — in the hearts of thousands 
of young men and young women who have been the recip- 
ients of Mr. Cooper's generosity? Around whose monu- 
ment will gather those whose love and affection will be man- 
ifested by the tear-drop that will steal away from an over- 
flowing fountain in loving remembrance of a dear friend and 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 299 

benefactor? Whose name will outlive the most costly and 
long-enduring monument? Methinks the name of Peter 
Cooper will shine bright when the monuments of rail- 
road kings and all those who have amassed great wealth, 
hoarding it up solely to gratify a selfish, sordid nature, des- 
titute of a single spark of human sympathy, yet can spend 
a hundred thousand dollars for an evening party for self- 
glory, but have not a dollar to give poor starving humanity, 
or for any worthy object — will have crumbled into dust. 
Such men as Peter Cooper need no monument to keep them 
from being forgotten. His name is immortal. It will go 
down the centuries with a bright halo of unfading glory. 
We cannot think of a more appropriate motto than this to 
inscribe on his monument, " Go thou and do likewise." If 
such a monument with such an inscription was placed at 
the head of Wall street, the great money center of this 
continent, we are inclined to think that those money kings 
who daily gamble in stocks in that locality would perhaps 
for once stop to read the inscription, but forever after ^' pass 
by on the other side^ 

How mean and conscience-smitten such men must feel 
when for once they stand in the presence of a great philan- 
thropist like the plain Peter Cooper, or an emblem of the 
departed. Mr. Cooper had no body-guard — he needed 
none. His plain carriage was known to the hackmen. 
Omnibus drivers and the humble draymen considered it an 
honor to allow Mr. Cooper's carriage the ''right of way." 
Hundreds of young men esteemed it an honor to lift their 
hat to Mr. Cooper. 

The reader may ask why this long article over a man 
who is dead and gone. For the best of all reasons — for 
an illustration of what one man accomplished for himself 
20— 



300 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

and the world, commencing, as he did, at the foot of the 
ladder, and by his own force of character reaching the 
highest round. We challenge the world to produce an 
example a parallel to this from the ranks of those born in 
affluence. The same route which he travelled is open for 
every young man to enter upon, to make the best time 
possible — the most of himself The great secret of Mr. 
Cooper's success was in having a plan on which he concen- 
trated all his energy, never turning to the right or left, but 
keeping on the straight course until the goal was reached, 
his great work centered upon this one thing — a sublime 

PURPOSE. 

" As a man purposeth in his heart, so is he." 

Weigh well and carefully the probabilities, the possibil- 
ities, of how it will affect your future should you make a 
mistake in choosing a life purpose. Young man, have you 
a purpose ? 

'' Live for something. Thousands of men breathe, move, 
and live, pass off the stage of life, and are heard of no 
more. Why? None were blessed by them; none could 
point to them as the means of their redemption ; not a line 
they wrote, not a word they spoke, could be recalled, and 
so they perished ; their light went out in darkness, and they 
were not remembered more than the inse6ls of yesterday. 
Will you thus live and die, O, man immortal? Live for 
something. Do good, and leave behind you a monument 
of virtue, which the storms of time can never destroy. 
Write your name in kindness, love, and mercy, on the 
hearts of those who come in contact with you, and you will 
never be forgotten. Good deeds will shine as brightly on 
earth as the stars of heaven." — Dr, Chalmers. 

Have for your motto, ''Higher! forever higher!" 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 301 

THE DELUSIONS OF THE AGE. 

THE ''mirage." 

We were once travelling in a country where this fantas- 
tic delusion played around us occasionally, to our supreme 
delight. Indifferent and obscure objects would appear along 
the horizon, wonderfully transformed. Scrubby brush, a 
foot or two high, loomed up like a forest of tall timber. 
Grass of less than six inches would be elongated to tall 
reeds, and would seem to be running a swift race. Soil 
that was red would present all the appearance of a raging, 
flaming fire. Men and animals would pass through won- 
derful transformations, assuming many curious and comical 
shapes. 

The water illusion to the poor, weary, thirsty, perishing 
traveller, is terrible, awful to think of — the climax of human 
suffering. For days he has been anxiously seeking for 
water, and all at once before his eager eyes appear beau- 
tiful lakelets, studded with islands, with fine shade trees 
gracing the shores. Excitedly he exclaims, "Water! 
water! it is found at last!" The cherished boon is just 
before him. Ten minutes walk and his raging thirst will 
be quenched. He bounds forward with new vigor, but 
soon discovers that the lake which seemed so near remains 
just as far away. He stops and looks again and again, and 
says, "Surely there is water; it is a flowing river." He 
sees the waves rise and fall, as gentle zephyrs play over 
them, sparkling in the sunlight. He almost thinks he hears 
the rippling waves as they lave the nearer shore. On he 
goes with increasing speed, if it were possible, that the 
sooner his burning, maddened thirst may be assuaged. He 
goes on; so does the phantom. In the burning heat of 



302 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

mid-day he falters, gasps for breath; his tongue is parched, 
swollen, and ceases to articulate. Reason trembles in the 
balance; his eyes are fixed, and with fingers pointing to 
the illusion, to him so real, he lies down to die. On the 
margin of that other river, to him unseen, his weary, weary, 
feet halted. 

THIRST. 

No word in our language, perhaps, carries with it greater 
weight than the word thirst. It is one of the words the 
meaning of which changes not. It is used to express all 
human wants, whether of body, mind, or soul — intensified 
in the superlative degree. 

There is no physical suffering more terrible to endure, or 
a death more awful to die than that of the burning thirst for 
water. Sailors shipwrecked upon the open sea know its 
horrors. Vambrey, in his travels in Central Asia, describes 
most graphically the scenes he witnessed there. He says : 
" Two of our companions having exhausted all their water, 
fell so sick that we were forced to bind them at full length 
upon the camels, as they were perfectly incapable of riding 
or sitting. We covered them, and as long as they were 
able to articulate, they kept exclaiming, ' Water ! Water ! ' 
— the only words that escaped their lips. Alas! even their 
best friends denied them the life-dispensing draught. On 
the fourth day one of them was freed by death from the 
dreadful torments of thirst. It was a horrible sight to see 
the father hide his store of water from the son, and brother 
from brother ; each drop is life, and when men feel the tor- 
ture of thirst there is not, as in the dangers of life, any 
spirit of self-sacrifice, or any feeling of generosity." 

The word thirst is very frequently used figuratively when 
speaking of an intense desire, or craving, for any special 



KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 303 

object. Thus we say, " He thirsts for revenge;" ''Thirsts 
after happiness ; " " He seeks his keeper's flesh and thirsts 
his blood." One of the ineffable joys of heaven is por- 
trayed by the statement that, '' They shall hunger no more, 
neither thirst any more." That is to say, that every long- 
ing shall be satisfied. Earth affords no such boon. 

The world is full of thirsty people — thirsting for some- 
thing they do not possess, a craving for something beyond 
their grasp. The mirage holds out the most tantalizing 
appearances to the poor traveller dying of thirst. It allures 
him along only to mock him at last in the throes of death. 
Some persons are permitted to reach the fountain they 
sought to reach, to drink deep thereof, to find at last it is a 
bitter fountain. No man who has had a burning thirst for 
gold, or for wealth, and who has exceeded his first mark, 
was ever satisfied with it. The same burning thirst, inten- 
sified, calls for more continually, and will not be satisfied. 
The pleasures of life afford no fountain at which its votaries 
can satiate their thirst. The man of ambition " fired up " 
to ''white heat," finds no cool, refreshing stream where he 
may quench the "fire within." The political aspirants, 
thirsting for office, even if they obtain the office sought, are 
unable to slake their thirst in the enjoyment of its honors. 
When they reach the first round of their aspirations, they 
discover a round higher, and so they thirst for that one, 
and are never satisfied. 

THIRSTING FOR FAME. 

Doctor X, after having accumulated a princely fortune, 
thirsted for the honors of the world. He sought to have 
his name immortalized by having towns and cities bear his 
name. He gave a large sum of money to a village corpo- 



304 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

ration to induce its citizens to drop the original name, and 
to take his name instead. He thirsted for political honors. 
He aspired to have '' Hon." in front, or " M. C." at the end 
of his name. He labored assiduously, and spent his money 
lavishly to get the nomination for a representative to con- 
gress, but was always defeated. It was a great and. sore 
disappointment to Doctor X. It incapacitated him for any 
business. His friends carried him to a private medical insti- 
tution for treatment. The shock to his system, however, 
had been too great to yield to remedies. He lingered a few 
months and died — died of an unquenchable thirst for hon- 
ors that money could not purchase. He sought to drink 
from a fountain that seemed to him so near and inviting — 
just a little way from him. The delusive mirage danced 
before him most bewitchingly, alluring him on, and inspir- 
ing him with the most sanguine anticipations and expecta- 
tions of soon reaching that fountain, and there slaking his 
burning thirst. No, never! Honors of the world never 
satisfy. 

Does wealth satisfy? Will it quench all thirst, appease 
all cravings of the body, of mind, and of soul? No! It 
never has ; it never will. Do6lor X had wealth in abund- 
ance. He left an estate of over ten millions of dollars. 
With his vast possessions he was beyond earthly necessity 
— for with his money he could supply every physical need. 
There was no luxury he could not purchase that could in 
any way conduce to his best and fullest enjoyment of life. 

THIRSTING FOR HONORS. 

What's fame ? 
A fancied life in other's breath : 
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death. — Pope. 

Horace Greeley was born in a humble home, in poverty. 
At sixteen years of age he started out for himself, penniless. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 305 

For years his success was anything but encouraging. With 
indomitable energy he labored on until he became the 
editor-in-chief of the New York Trib2ine, one of the best 
papers in the world. The position did not satisfy him very 
long. He thirsted for something beyond — to drink at 
another fountain. He set his affe6lions upon the highest 
office in the land — the presidency of the United States. 
The mirage played most charmingly before him, and the 
more he speculated upon the delusion the greater assur- 
ance he had of its being what it seemed, and to be so near 
to him that there was no question as to his ability to drink 
to his full of public favor. The thirst increased as time 
drew near when the verdifl of the people was to decide 
who was to be the winning man. It was a short and spir- 
ited race. Mr. Greeley concentrated his entire energies, 
soul and body, to win the race. He failed. He was a dis- 
appointed man. The presidential mirage proved a terrible 
delusion to him. He fell into a stupor soon after the result 
was known, from which he never rallied, and his death fol- 
lowed in a very few days. 

" What shall I do lest life in silence pass ? " 
And if it do, 
And never prompt the bray of noisy brass, 

What need'st thou rue? 
Remember aye the ocean's deeps are mute : 

The shallows roar ; 
Worth is the ocean — Fame is the bruit 
Along the shore. 

" What shall I do to be forever known? " 

Thy duty ever ; 
" This did full many who yet sleep unknown," — 
Oh ! never, never ! 
Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown 

Whom thou know'st not? 
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown, 
Divine their lot. 



306 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

" What shall I do to gain eternal life ? " 
Discharge aright 
The simple dues with which each day is rife, 

Yea, with thy might. 
Ere perfect scheme of a6lion thou devise, 

Will life be fled. 
While he who ever acts as conscience cries 
Shall live, though dead. 

— Schiller. 

Every young man of ordinary good sense is anxious to 
learn in advance what he can of his future, his fortune, and 
the happiness or sorrow, success or failure, that await him 
before the problem of life shall have been fully solved. It 
is perfectly right and proper that he should be anxious to 
rightly comprehend the ever-increasing responsibilities as 
the years come and go; responsibilities that he cannot 
escape or delegate to any human being. 

Look not mournfully into the past, it cannot come back ; wisely improve the 
present, it is thine ; go forth to meet the shadowy future without fear and with a 
manly heart. — Longfellow. 

There is a sure road to success. Go bravely forward and 
fearlessly meet the responsibilities of life as they shall arise, 
with the full determination to yield to none. Bear your 
own burdens cheerfully and with courage. Surmount all 
obstacles that are hindrances, though they may be simply 
blessings in disguise. Aim for something higher at each 
advancing step, thereby developing increasing power to 
achieve vi6lory. Thus every step lifts you one degree 
higher — higher and nearer to the goal. 

So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death. 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave, at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. 

— Bryant. 



PART 11. 



PRACTICAL BUSINESS PRECEPTS. 

INTEGRITY OF CHARACTER. 

The young men of this country have great reason to feel 
proud of their birth-right. This is the only land where 
every avenue for business, the learned professions, or pub- 
lic offices of honor and trust, are open alike to all — rich or 
poor, high or low. We have here no caste, no entailed 
heirships, no aristocracy to "lord it over the common 
people." Every young man is absolutely free to sele6l his 
own calling, and compete for any place or position in the 
gift of the people, even to the highest office — the presi- 
dency of the United States. It is his inalienable right, 
under the laws of the land, to choose any pathway that he 
may deem the most congenial to his happiness. No serf- 
dom can exist where the banner of universal freedom floats 
to the free winds of heaven. 

There are certain fundamental principles which lie at the 
bottom of all successful achievements in any legitimate un- 
dertaking. The very first thing for a young man to do is 
to decide for himself what his calling shall be — whether it 
shall be one of the varied industries of the country, whether 
he shall aim to be a merchant prince or a scholar, or a man 
of science. He alone must decide this question. If it is 



308 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

merchandizing, one of the requisites is capital. Yet there 
is something better than a cash capital to commence busi- 
ness with ; even as long as one continues in a6tive life there 
is something better, and what every one must have to en- 
title him to be classed ''A i ;" and that is integrity of char- 
after. It is better than a gift of ten thousand dollars to any 
young man who is destitute of that important requisite. 
Hundreds of young men have commenced business and 
made it successful who had not a dollar at the start. They 
are able to secure capital by their integrity of character, 
which will always give them credit, while a man of wealth, 
devoid of it, cannot secure equal favors. A dishonest man, 
no matter how large his bank account may be, is always 
looked upon with suspicion. He possesses double power. 
He can violate all rules of true business etiquette, and with 
his wealth enforce his dishonest schemes. And it has come 
to this with many wholesale dealers: When selecting their 
customers they will say, ''We do not care a fig as to what 
Mr. A is worth; all we care to know is, is he honest?'' 
One dealer will have a car-load of produce shipped to him 
with no other instructions but to ''sell and remit proceeds, 
less charges," while another dealer cannot get a consign- 
ment of merchandise to sell on commission on any terms. 

We knew a fruit dealer, who, on the reputation of his 
father, would order a large quantity of fruit, and as soon as 
it arrived at the depot would telegraph to the consignor, 
"Your fruit is in bad order; will not receive it. It is at the 
depot subject to your order." The shipper, unaware of the 
character of the dealer, telegraphs back, "Take fruit; do 
the best you can; remit proceeds less expenses." There 
was never anything to remit; the transaction was a clean 
steal. He did not continue long in the fruit business. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 309 

A young man engaged in the wholesale trade, and pro- 
cured a large insurance on his stock, amounting to two or 
three times its value. A fire occurred in his store soon 
after. His stock was not consumed, but nearly ruined by 
water. The insurance adjusters inquired into the matter, 
and the result of their investigation was, they offered the 
young man one dollar each for the policies he held, if he 
would surrender them to the companies that issued them. 
He accepted the proposition. He received five dollars for 
a sixteen thousand dollar loss. His smartness developed 
itself unfortunately for him. Some men will sell themselves 
for a dollar. The penalties from cheating in weight or 
measure, or misrepresenting the quality of goods to secure 
a sale, always recoil on the man who practices such impo- 
sitions. You must remember, every man has his friends, 
and there is but one safe way to do business — to treat 
everybody as you would a friend, and you will never lack 
for patronage. 

HON. JOHN FRIEDLEY's MOTTO. 

'' Self-dependence, self-reliance." 

''It is a mistaken notion," he writes, ''that capital alone 
is necessary to success in business. If a man has head and 
fiands suited to his business, it will soon procure him capi- 
tal. My observations through life satisfy me that at least 
nine-tenths of those most successful in business start in life 
without any reliance except upon their own hardened hands 
— hoe their own row from the jump." 

AMOS Lawrence's way of dealing with 

CUSTOMERS. 

"A country trader bought a few yards of cloth at ten dol- 
lars a yard. On measuring the piece at home it ran short 



310 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

a quarter of a yard. The trader was almost afraid to speak 
of so small a matter to so courtly a merchant. On his next 
visit to Boston he plucked up courage enough to say, ' Mr. 
Lawrence, when I was here a few months ago I bought a 
few yards of fine broadcloth.' 'Yes; at ten dollars a yard.' 
'According to my measure, it fell short a quarter.' ' Fell short 
a quarter! That will* never do; it should have overrun 
a quarter.' Turning to the book-keeper, he said, 'Credit 
this gentleman with half a yard of our best broadcloth.' 
That customer was nailed for life." — '' Burleigh ^ 

HUGH MILLER. 

Hugh Miller's worthy uncle used to advise him, " In all 
your dealings give your neighbor the cast of the bank — 
'good measure, heaped up, and running over.' — and you 
will not lose by it in the end." 

Hugh Miller speaks of a mason with whom he served his 
apprenticeship, as one who ''put his conscience into every 
stone that he laid.''^ 

MAXIMS OF SUCCESSFUL MEN. 

"Be frank; say what you mean; do what you say; so 
shall your friends know and take it for granted that you 
mean to do what is just and right.. 

" Never forget a favor, for ingratitude is the basest trait 
of man's heart. Always honor your country, and remem- 
ber that our country is the very best poor man's country in 
the world." — John Gregg. 

A Boston merchant had these two maxims for his guide : 

" Do thoroughly what you undertake." 
*' Be faithful in all accepted trusts." 



RENTS NE W COMMENT A RY. 311 

He says of them, '' I am satisfied they have served me 
well t/ij^ee score years.'' And so they did, for he was one 
of the solid men of Boston — a millionaire. 

''As a first and leading principle, let every transaction be 
of that pure and honest character that you would not be 
ashamed to have appear before the whole world as clearly 
as to yourself It is of the highest consequence that you 
should not only cultivate correct principles, but that you 
should place your standard so high as to require great vig- 
ilance in living up to it." — Amos Lawrence. 

''The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are 
to be regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the 
. morning, or nine at night, heard by a creditor, makes him 
easy six months longer ; but if he sees you at the billiard- 
table, or hears your voice at a tavern, when you should be 
at work, he sends for his money the next day, demands it 
before he can receive it in a lump." — Franklin. 

JOHN Mcdonough's rules. 
Upon the tomb of John McDonough, the millionaire of 
New Orleans, are engraved thirteen maxims which he 
adopted for his guidance through life, and which no doubt 
had much to do in making it a very successful one. 

"i — Remember always that labor is one of the condi- 
tions of our existence. 2 — Time is gold; throw not one 
minute away, but place each one to account. 3 — Do unto 
all men as you would be done by. 4 — Never put off till 
to-morrow what you can do to-day. 5 — Never bid another 
to do what you can do yourself 6 — Never covet what is 
not your own. 7 — Never think any matter so trifling as 
not to deserve notice. 8 — Never give out that which does 



312 KENT S NEW COMMENTARY, 

not first come in. 9 — Never spend but to produce. 10 — 
Let the greatest order regulate the transactions of your 
life. II — Study in your course of life to do the greatest 
amount of good. 12 — Deprive yourself of nothing nec- 
essary to your comfort, but live in an honorable simplicity 
and frugality. 13 — Labor, then, to the last moment of 
your exisence." 

RESERVE POWER. 

The successful general does not exhibit the strength of 
his army by a grand dress-parade in front of the enemy. 
He deploys skirmishers to draw him out, to learn his posi- 
tion and strength, and not to exhibit his own. When the 
battle opens, the veterans are held in reserve, only to be 
brought into action in case the enemy presses too hard, or 
he has not force sufficient to hold them in check, or when 
a flank movement is attempted. He never employs more 
men than is necessary ; never wastes his ammunition. 

A good debater never shows his strong points first. He 
holds his "big guns" in reserve to the last, using only what 
fire is necessary to checkmate his opponent, only to knock 
down ''the pins" he sets up. 

The great secret of success in business is to economize 
one's resources in every way possible, expending only 
where and when absolutely necessary. The expending of 
money lavishly without getting an equivalent, is useless, 
and hinders the early accomplishment of the object sought. 
Always keep a good reserve on hand. Don't waste your 
ammunition. You have none to waste. Don't fire your 
gun for the noise, the report. Many a general has won a 
victory by resolutely sticking by the "quaker guns," when 
he was bankrupt in war material and fighting stock. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 313 

The truly wise man should have no keeper of his secrets but himself. 

— Guizot. 

Hundreds of business men on the extreme verge of 
bankruptcy, have, by a brave heart and determined will, 
by keeping right straight along — keeping their mouths 
shut to their real condition — weathered the storm, and 
nobody has been hurt. It requires nerve-power, will- 
power. A nervous, timid man is sure to betray himself. 
The moment the man himself becomes alarmed, and his 
creditors know it, they will be greatly alarmed, and the 
wheels will have to stop. Said Admiral Farragut, in a 
letter to his wife, "As to being prepared for defeat, I cer- 
tainly am not. Any man who is prepared for defeat would 
be half defeated before he commenced. I hope for success. 
I shall do all in my power to secure it, and trust to God for 
the rest." 

It is worth a thousand pounds a year to have the habit of looking on the 
bright side of things. — Dr. Johnson. 

Hold your reserve power, all you have, to the last — to 
the last moment. Never show your hand, except when 
absolutely necessary. The great railroad magnates do not 
advertise their plans. They do not boast of the millions 
they have in reserve to buy up some bankrupt railroad. 
They show their heads or hands only as receivers of divi- 
dends. Reserve power is capital — it is better than money 
in the bank ; it is credit on the street, current anywhere. 

Young man, keep a good reserve on hand. Add to it 
every day. It will pay you more than a hundred per cent 
interest annually. It is the anchor and ballast that hold 
the ship and keep it right side up through storm and tem- 
pest. Your reserve power is your anchor and ballast to 
keep you right side up, that you may outride the financial 



314 -RENTS NEW COMMENTARY, 

Storms and crises which are sure to come sometime, some- 
where, and perhaps when you least expect them. If you 
have the anchor, throw it overboard, it will hold, and you 
will be safe. We wish to be clear at this point, as we have 
been a victim, and paid dearly for the information we give 
you. It has cost us more than ten thousand dollars to learn 
it. It may be worth ten times that amount to you. It is 
worth a hundred dollars to every young man to know 
this fact. It will be worth from one thousand to one hun- 
dred thousand dollars to some young man who has read 
these pages, and acts according to the spirit of their teach- 
ings. Young man, HOLD on! 



' Lives of great men all remind us 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time. 

* Let us, then, be up and doing. 

With a heart for any fate ; 
Still achieving, still pursuing, 
Learn to labor and to wait." 






'■k. 



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